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I was able to find this much on the subject, from Kallistos Ware:I have heard variations from pious Orthodox that range from literal Genesis to God taking an early hominid and imbuing it with a soul. Even heard an argument that those hominids were a source of spouses for Adam's children since incest was forbidden.
From what I understand, it seems that the Orthodox Church/the Church Fathers were very complicated when it comes to what they stated as it concerns how it's easy to see patterns toward the allegorical and not being 100% literal in all things. - more at Darwin, Evolution, Adam & Eve - Coptic Orthodox Divine Justice.
As far as I can see, the Fathers NEVER held to the stance which YEC have today when seeing the world made in a literal 24-hour day mindset - even though they held to the concept of a Young Earth - and that is the nature of what others have already pointed out when it came to their views of instantaneous creation.
This is also seen in Augustine, whose doctrine of creation was complex. For all matter, according to him, was created on the first day. Subsequently God created pregnant ideas that Augustine called rationes seminales, which were imbedded in creation. Some only came to fruition afterwards, even, it might be argued, after the Fall. For Augustine , he thought that God could even have catered for the eventuality of the Fall of man into sin and the subsequent curse.
Excerpt from Augustine's "On Genesis" Book II "Question of the phase in which the moon was made" 15, 30
"God, after all is the author and founder of things in their actual natures. Now whatever any single thing may in some way or other produce and unfold by its natural development through periods of time that are suited to it, it contained it beforehand as something hidden, if not in specific forms and bodily mass, at least by the force and reckoning of nature, unless of course a tree, void of fruit and stripped of its leaves throughout the winter, is then to be called imperfect, or unless again at its origins, when it had still not yet borne any fruit, its nature was also imperfect. It is not only about the tree, but about its seed also that this could not rightly be said; there everything that with the passage of time is somehow or other going to appear is already latent in invisible ways. Although, if God were to make anything imperfect, which he then would himself bring to perfection, what would be reprehensible about such an idea? But you would be quite within your rights to disapprove if what had been begun by him were said to be completed and perfected by another."
The philosophical underpinnings of evolution are present, with others long noting that it should be remembered that we are not talking about changes from one kind to another... but merely a perfection of an existing, undifferentiated type to a more differentiated one.
The father's view on instaneous creation is similar to what has occurred in modern-day views with things. In example, I'm reminded of the view that John Sailhamer wrote in Genesis Unbound or in his other books, which says that all of creation happened in verses 1 and 2.
It may be as old as 4 trillion years, as far as he is concerned, and what was happening in Genesis 1 each day was not the bringing into being of the earth and its various forms, but rather the ordering, managing and structuring of things. And this allows for 24 hour days but also allows for an old earth. Theologian/Pastor John Piper did an EXCELLENT review on the work from Sailhamer on his ministry site - as Dr. John Sailhamer's 1996 book, Genesis Unbound: A Provocative New Look at the Creation Account (Multnomah) is 250 pages of worthwhile reading. For Sailhamer suggests that the word "beginning" in Genesis 1:1 holds within itself the key to a correct reading of the text...as in his view, the word can be understood to refer to the boundless (or not) ages before God "prepared" the Earth for human habitation (as described in Genesis 1:2-2:4) - meaning that the dinosaurs, ice ages, and geological strata can be traced to this "beginning" while the presence of humankind on the earth takes place only after this extended period of "beginning". ....leading to the view that science can rightly deal with this "beginning" period without fearing that faith will be contradicted because it is only with the creation of man and God's preparation of the earth for human habitation that concerns the author of Genesis 1:2-2:4 (taken by Sailhamer to be Moses).
This may seem like an issue to some..
But IMHO, there are many reasons why it doesn't seem to be something we should trip on. Technically, the scriptures already note that day was not always used in a 24 hour sense. For both the Bible and modern science say that God must be eternal and operate in at least two dimensions of time - and the Bible clearly states that with God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day (Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8).
"And the vision of the evenings and mornings which has been told is true; but keep the vision secret, for it pertains to many days in the future." (Daniel 8:26) - something that took 3000+ years
And the scripture saying "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17)" - which took 900+ years
Moreover, I'm reminded of how scripture says "And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. (Genesis 2:2)"
In the book of Hebrews, the author tells us to labor to enter into God's seventh day of rest, which continues to this day.
For He has thus said somewhere concerning the seventh day, "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works"... Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:4-11)
By any calculation, God's seventh day of rest has been at least 6,000 years long.
For more, one can go here (As it concerns Old Earth Creationism) and here to day-age interpretation « The GeoChristian
- What is a day? « The GeoChristian
- J.P. Moreland's advice to young-Earth creationists « The GeoChristian
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