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Since we are the “Worldview Warriors,” our number one aim is to instill in people a “worldview” that is consistent with the teachings of Christianity. One of the most foundational issues concerning worldview is the topic of origins. Most people are familiar with the “Creation vs. Evolution” debate. What may be confusing to some people is what is meant by “Creation.” That is what I will be discussing in this post.

The simplest way to explain the term “Creation” is that it implies that there was a “Creator.” This is where the topic of Creation becomes unexpectedly complicated. Those that believe in a Creator can typically be broken down into two camps: 1) Creationists and 2) those who believe in “Intelligent Design.” Despite how the media portrays the two camps, Creationism and Intelligent Design are two different concepts.

To make a long story short, Intelligent Design does not promote a specific God and does not acknowledge one specific creation account. It actually does not intend to prove that a god is the Creator, but that someone or something designed life and maybe the universe.

Creationism is most easily defined as the belief that the God of the Bible created the universe and everything in it according to the method he used in the book of Genesis. It can be broken down into two groups: Old Earth Creationists (OEC’s) and Young Earth Creationists (YEC’s).

OEC’s are broken down into two main groups: Those that believe in “Gap Theory” and those that believe in “Day Age Theory.” Gap Theory typically teaches that there is a “Gap” of millions and possibly billions of years between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. Day Age Theorists believe that each day in Genesis is actually representative of an age in history or a long span of time (the days of creation are therefore meant to be poetic). These two perspectives have reinterpreted Biblical information based on the beliefs of popular science. YEC’s do not allow such leeway.

YEC’s believe that Genesis should be understood literally, as it is written and in its context. Because of that, they base their scientific interpretations off of the Bible. For instance, they believe that the “Geologic Column” was a result of Noah’s Flood and that fossils are animals that were caught in it and covered by mudslides. The term “young earth” is derived from the belief of YEC’s that the world is only 6,000 years old. This belief is a result of a literal reading of the genealogies provided throughout the Bible.

My posts will be from the perspective of a Young Earth Creationist because I believe in the YEC model of creation and, more importantly, the authority of Holy Scripture above all other authorities, including popular scientific interpretations. There are many strange ideas about YEC that I think need to be debunked and unpacked. Some of the most popular misconceptions about YEC’s are that they believe that the world is flat, that dinosaurs never existed, and that the entire universe revolves around the earth. I assure you that very few YEC’s believe in such teachings and that the origins of those teachings are not Biblical. I hope you all join me in my next post as I will seek to explain why it is more theologically beneficial to believe in a young earth.