Hi Binyawmene -
How does progressive creationism compare to other forms of creationism?
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Hi Inertia. It's been many years since we had a discussion. Do you mean like instantaneous versus progressive?
Old Earth is a position that the word
day is a
"long period of time," which each exclusive days in Genesis contains informational gaps and the account doesn't give us a full description of what actually happen. And the study of general revelation or the record of nature can be explained of what happen during these gaps. It would seem like Genesis creation account on the fifth day was an anachronism language style. Or an error in chronology by misplacing birds instead of mentioning dinosaurs first. After all, we would have observed "birds" flying in the air and not "dinosaurs" roaming the earth. Some suggest that Genesis is written from the perspective of human observer of their time era or maybe not, just informational gaps.
Example, if all you had was Genesis chapter one, then we would assume that fully grown birds suddenly appeared out of thin air (Genesis 1:20-23). Or could there be informational gaps? Because in chapter two provides an additional information that birds was formed from the ground (Genesis 2:19). Also, we would assume, that Adam and Eve were created instantaneously together in the same moment of time (Genesis 1:27). Except there was a time interval between Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:7, 21-22). God created them separately at different times.
Progressive creationism is a doctrinal position that teaches God is the creator and eye-witness of his creation (Genesis 1:2, Proverbs 8:27-29, Job 38:4-6). And what he spoke progressively continues on its own until it reaches its extinction or destruction, then God creates again. Like what you see in Genesis 1:2, the frame of reference is the earth's surface being formless (without structure) and void (without life), or in other words, desolate and undistinguishable ruin. Why? Its a description of the earth's planetary formation during the end of its phase, when a mars-like object made collision to earth, sending enormous amount of debris into the atmosphere and the debris orbit around the earth for millions of years until it collected together resulting into our moon. At that time the earth's condition would cause a water-world under a dark blanket.
And God begin to create the six long period of time days, "Let there be light." During his creating of those six days the earth has received many catastrophic events, like meteorites, volcanic eurptions, and earthquakes, etc. The Genesis 1 doesn't mention all of this occurring since there is informational gaps in the creation days. We known about this by studying the record of nature. But these catastrophic events caused the vegetations on the land to come to ruin and dinosaurs coming to their extinction. "When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust." (Psalms 104:29). Then the Spirit of God will continuously create again and again progressively. Either with same-old related created type or with a beand-new unrelated created kind. "When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground." (Psalms 104:30).
Example, the dinosaurs are not mention in the Bible and that the dinosaurs were created, more than likely, on the fifth day since there is informational gaps. So you have God who created the dinosaurs to roam the earth during the triassic period. And there was a catastrophic event taken place on earth and a massive extinction of dinosaurs occurred. And maybe there was a few surviving dinosaurs that remained. Then you have God create again with a related type of dinosaurs in the jurassic period. There was another catastrophic event and a massive extinction with a few survivors. And obviously in the cretaceous period, you have God who creates a related type of dinosaurs. There was another catastrophic event that wiped out the dinosaurs totally and completely on a massive extinction level.
However, this time God creates the bird-kind totally brand-new and unrelated to the dinosaurs-types. Unless you are an evolutionist, then the remaining surviving dinosaurs evolved into birds. Or the crocodiles existed among the theropods, etc. This is progressive creationism from ruin to restoration after the catastrophic event. Now the fifth day account reaches the familiar recognized category of bird-kind. But when it came to the birds there was a new biological order "after their own kind," which is commonly known as microevolution (bird explosion, fish explosion, and mammal explosion, etc.).
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