As good as done-an old earth possibility

[smithaw9027]

If I was forced to bet money I would bet on a young earth this is how the Bible literally reads and what alot of people I really respect believe, however, here is an interesting alternative.

God gave his commands on 7 consecutive days and the commands took centuries, even billions of years to be carried out -perhaps by angels, perhaps by science, perhaps a combination. (Although science as a causality alone seems utterly ridiculous to me.) I have read that in the ancient Hebrew that God makes the commands of Genesis and then their fulfillment is placed in a type of parentheses. When God made the command it was as good as done. These parentheses are used throughout the Bible for small detail -like the measurements for the temple. Perhaps to Moses, when God spoke the universe into existence it was a small detail that it then came about. That "of course it came about, god spoke it didn't he.) Anyway these parenthetical "asides", according to the author I read can also mean that the events arten't in exact order.

For instance I could be writing a paper about George Washington in the French and Indian War and say: "George Washington was one of the greatest generals of all time. (His stunning win over Great Britain in the Revolutionary War forever cemented his legacy.) But his leadershio in the early days of the conflict with the French was questionable." Everyone reading this knows that the French and Indian War was 20 years before the Revolutionary War. My comments in parentheses are not understood to be in sequence. Maybe the same is true about Genesis Chapter 1. I'm not sure, but I'd be interested to hear some comments.

 

[Bushido216]

Huh? But Moses would have had to have that knowledge a priori to it actually happening.

 

[MagusAlbertus]

God gave his commands on 7 consecutive days and the commands took centuries, even billions of years to be carried out -perhaps by angels, perhaps by science, perhaps a combination.

i like it.

 

[lucaspa]

I have read that in the ancient Hebrew that God makes the commands of Genesis and then their fulfillment is placed in a type of parentheses.

1. Hebrew doesn't even have vowels or capital letters, much less parentheses.
2. Even if this were so, you still have the problems of Day-Age theory:
a. Plants exist millions of years before the sun.
b. Earth exists millions or billions of years before the stars.
c. Birds exist millions of years before reptiles (their ancestors)
d. Whales exist tens of millions of years before land mammals (their ancestors)

When God made the command it was as good as done.

But don't you also have God looking at what was done at the end of each day and pronouncing it "good"? Yep. God saw (past tense) that it was good and then it was evening and morning of a day. IOW, creation is completed within that day.

(Although science as a causality alone seems utterly ridiculous to me.)

That's because you seem to separate science from God. Why are you doing that?

"The only distinct meaning of the word 'natural' is stated, fixed, or settled; since what is natural as much requires and presupposes an intelligent agent to render it so, i.e., to effect it continually or at stated times, as what is supernatural or miraculous does to effect it for once." Butler: Analogy of Revealed Religion.

"A Law of Nature then is the rule and Law, according to which God resolved that certain Motions should always, that is, in all Cases be performed. Every Law does immediately depend upon the Will of God." Gravesande, Mathematical Elements of Natural Philosophy, I, 2-3, 1726, quoted in CC Gillespie, Genesis and Geology, 1959.

Anyway these parenthetical "asides", according to the author I read can also mean that the events arten't in exact order.

That's the key here. The existence of parenthetical asides. How does the author you read know these asides are there. What are the marks in the Hebrew text for parentheses? If there aren't any, how does the author know there are any to begin with? Who is the author?