Holly3278 said:
Hey everyone. What exactly do Old Earth Creationists believe? I am assuming that they are the same thing as a Young Earth Creationist except they believe the universe is older. Am I right?
Hi Holly. I mentioned some varied old earth positions in the other thread you started (
Are you OEC or YEC?), and an internet search on the subject will reveal much the same. I think I can say that the views on creation are NOT the same and the age of the universe is not the only difference. So first, it would be good to list the known views and get a brief outline of what their world view is.
1. YEC: Young Earth Creation. Ministries like ICR and AiG are an example, where based on their literal interpretation of the Bible, the Universe and everything in it was created less than 10,000 ya. (more like 6,200).
2. PC: Progressive Creationism. In this theory, each day of creation is equated to a long period of time, and represents a specific portion of God's creative work which may overlap the other days of creation. Even though Progressive Creationists believe in an old earth, they do not believe in evolution, but rather that each species was created a unique creation, from nothing, without evolving from an earlier species.
3. GT: The Gap Theory. This theory proposes that there was a gap of time, of billions of years, between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. This theory claims that the earth of old somehow became ruined (some blame Satan and his fallen angels), and was later repaired by God as described during the six 24-hour days of creation.
4. DA: Day-Age.
is a type that holds that the six days referred to in the Genesis account of creation are not ordinary 24-hour days, but rather are much longer periods (of thousands or millions of years). The Genesis account is then interpreted as an account of the process of cosmic evolution, providing a broad base on which any number of theories and interpretations are built.
5. EC or TE:
Evolutionary creationism, or
Theistic evolution, is the general belief that some or all classical religious teachings about
God and
creation are compatible with some or all of the
scientific theory of
evolution. The term evolutionary creationism is used in particular for beliefs in which God transcends normal time and space, with nature having no existence independent of His will. Some or most of Genesis is treated as allegory.
6. YBC: Young Biological Creation. This is another literal interpretation model that interprets Genesis 1:1-2 as a prior creation of the universe and the core elements of the earth. That the earth was in an unfinished state (covered with water and cloud layer) when the events of the six literal day creation week took place. It holds that all biology was created and the shaping of the earth and atmosphere for habitation took place appx. 6,180 ya.
As many of you know by now, I fall into the YBC camp. It is often times confused with the GT because of the old universe aspect, but is different in that there was only one creation week of the earth. Other views of the global flood etc. follow more closely with the YEC model. I first heard the term YBC from Gorman Gray
www.ageoftheuniverse.com/index.htm . My outline of the model is at:
www.genesistruth.org/documents/Young Biological Creation.pdf.
