Genesis contains the account of the Flood, which Jesus references as to how it will be at His coming. I believe the Flood is also key for support of a young earth creation view.
Abraham will become the father of all nations because of a faith like his.
Islam makes claim to Abraham through Ishmael, but it does not have the continuity of revelation or genealogy from Ishmael to Mohammad. There is a continuity of revelation and genealogy, a specific one, linking the beginning of creation to the time and person of Jesus Christ, through and by whom salvation from sin and its consequences would be possible, Matthew 1:1-16 (to Abe); Luke 3:23-38 (to Adam).
One can believe in this continuity of revelation whether they believe creation took place 13.8 billion years ago or less than 10,000 years ago, but in either case, the chronology and genealogy from Adam to Christ has to be 8000 to 4000 years ago. One has to be creative to fill in the gap between Adam and the beginning, if the gap is nearly 14 billion years.
Though the book of Genesis is about origin science and not operational science, it does tell how things came into existence. God created things fully operational in the account. Living things were fully functional, mature.
A guy once approached me, and asked me which came first, the chicken or the egg. I responded that the chicken did.
Jesus said God created them male and female; they were both created fully functional able to procreate.
Now I do not believe God created the world a burial ground from which we have coal and oil and natural Gas. These were a result of the destruction by the Flood.
One can try to reconcile the basic evolutionary concepts (change / mutations and natural selection) with intelligent design, but they will have to be creative in explaining the creation account and the Flood account.
A science writer once said “to believe that God created mathematical consistency and then sat back and waited for the world that exists is a safe God to believe in if you don’t want to come to blows with science.”
Is an interpretation of Genesis that accommodates evolution is any more persuasive than a young earth view?
Exodus 20:8-11 reveal that God created over a 6 day period and rested on the seventh, and this is the pattern for the work week and Sabbath day.
Genesis 1:14 says the lights are for signs and season, days and years. For that purpose to be realized nearly 14 billion years later (by humans who came along only recently in that scheme) seems rather long.
Genesis 1:31 has God seeing everything was good at the end of the 6th day. How could this be if the effects of sin were allowed to affect the world and creatures before Adam came on the scene, as William Dembski suggests for a view that proposes that the effects of sin predate Adam?
Concerning the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11…Though the word “begot” does not always refer to parent child relationship, it does not necessarily mean that a name gap includes a time gap. If you say I was 20 when my son was born and his daughter “Y” was born when he was 25, then I was 45. If you say I was 45 when I begot Y (who was my granddaughter), the time that passed is the same even though a generation was skipped. So if the genealogies skip names, it doesn’t mean there are chronological gaps. It’s very possible that the chronology has no gaps, and therefore, a creation nearly 6000 years ago is possible. However, there is still evidence of gaps, such as with the genealogy between Salmon and David, since the time gap is nearly 360 years, considering that Salmon’s wife was Rahab, and the Jericho event was around 1400BC and David was born about 1040bc. There’s also the argument that the age given for an ancestor when a descendant was born may refer to their age at the birth of an immediate descendant not named from whom the named descendant comes—if that even makes sense. In any case, gaps can’t account for the kind of time-line evolutionists claim between Adam and Abraham.
Exodus 12:40 says the sojourn of Israel in Egypt was 430 years. But from the time of Kohath (son of Levi, GrandFather of Moses Ex 6:16-20) to Moses of 80 years old, it was only 215 years. The LXX reads that the time was reckoned from time in Canaan too. And Paul says in Galatians 3:17 the 430 years is from the time of Abe’s promise in Genesis 12 to the time of Egyptian departure, Gen 46:26.
The promise of a “Seed” in whom all families are blessed is repeated 3 times in Genesis, 22:18, 26:4, and 28:14. The original promise to Abe is in Genesis 12:3 of all families of earth blessed ”in” Abe, but “seed” not used. The promises repeated to Isaac and Jacob. Galatians is making reference to this promise in 3:8-9; 13-17. The time of the promise to the giving of the Law is 430 years.
“Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” This is found in Genesis 15:6 and repeated in Galatians 3:6-9 and Romans 4:3,13. The promise of blessing to all through Abraham would be through his Seed, being Christ, and through believing God, as Abraham did.
It has been said that the reference in Genesis 15:5-6 took place sometime in the past, the Hebrew form of “believed” shows that this faith did not begin at this point, but is recorded here because it is the foundation for making the covenant, and with reference to the star-count-seeds-revelation, this faith, by which he was justified, is how there will be this star-count-seed of his, as Romans 4:17-18. The nations would be “blessed” with Abe by this faith he had, Gal 3:8-9.
I’m still uncertain about this referring to the past, but the argument is made that how could Abe have not already had saving faith by this time, having obeyed God’s call? Though I have thought he had a belief like Cornelius until certain revelation came that he believed by which he was saved.
Unger’s OT commentary says that “for the first time, he clearly and implicitly received, embraced, and rested in the promise of a seed—a son, an heir, and consequently, a Savior. His faith appropriated not merely a promise of salvation, but a specific offer of a savior. … the transaction that took place under the starry sky is regarded in the New Testament as the pattern for a sinner’s justification.” Maybe the faith Abe had with reference to the star count revelation was consistent with that faith he had in the past that resulted in justification.
Romans 4:17 says that “God, who gives life to the dead, calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” God made Abe and Sarah wait until it was evident that the conception and birth of Isaac was according to Divine promise. God gave life to the dead. This statement by Paul also says how salvation works, in that He gives life to the dead (dead in sin) and calls those things which do not exist as though they did (justification is exactly that—God declares us righteous by faith, even though we are not!)
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