Literal Creation?

One Theologian/Philosopher who has been increasingly on my radar is American Paul Copan, current president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society, and the author of several books. I'm currently thoroughly enjoying 'Is God a Moral Monster?', which I hope to review shortly. I blogged partway through this year about the Creation/Evolution/Origins discussion that causes lots of disagreement. It was largely sparked off by my post about the experience of my friend and cousin-in-law, in "BBC's Creation: One Christian Response"; which generated lots of comment and feedback, in conventional comments as well as via email and Facebook. This resulted in a post clarifying some of my thoughts with the aid of extracts from Michael Horton's Systematic Theology, in my post "Creation Doctrine". 

In my general wanderings, meanderings and readings I ended up stumbling across Copan's website - www.paulcopan.com (excuse the grin, he's in America) - and enjoying particularly reading through his CV, which provides lists of things he's written and so on. The article that caught my eye especially is the one I quote from today, "The Days of Genesis: An Old Earth View". The issue of Origins and Creation is one that has far-reaching apologetic, salvific and pastoral ramifications; in short, it matters. Which is why Paul Copan's perspective in the aforementioned paper is so helpful. I reproduce the pertinent paragraph below, which almost perfectly tallies with my current perspective:

"For much of my life, I’d believed in a recent universe, being suspicious of any “billions of years”talk. But after reading scientifically-trained authors—Christian and non-Christian with no apparent axe to grind—who repeatedly spoke of an ancient cosmos, I investigated further.  To my surprise, not only did many young-earth “evidences” in which I had taken scientific refuge come crashing down, I found that most such “evidences” were highly selective, skewed, outdated, or otherwise problematic.  I would have been happy to find solid support for a young universe (and I’m still open to persuasion), but I regularly found it to be shaky at best. The more I have studied the Scriptures and the relevant, wide-ranging scientific data, the more reasonably I can conclude that (1) the universe is billions of years old and (2) Scripture accords nicely with this evidence. The breathtaking splenduor of God’s creation isn’t diminished if the process took billions of years rather than six 24-hour days.  The heavens still declare God’s glory."*

Amen. Copan goes on to state that the difference between him and a Young Earth Creationist Christian (John MacArthur is the specific one Copan is responding to) is a hermeneutical one, not one about the authority of scripture or similar. It is a radically orthodox, biblically engaged, apologetically useful, and scripturally supported position for a bible-believing Christian to accept an Old Earth view. Science is fully compatible with Christian belief, and Scripture itself is the authority on which such a conclusion can come to. I'd fully recommend Copan's article. Read it. Think about it. It points to a Christianity that understands and engages with all of reality - just as our Lord, Jesus, rules over and will ultimately redeem all of reality. The literal creation of Genesis does not necessitate a seven-day view, but it does point to the Lordship of Christ, the historical reality that Scripture proclaims, and the wonderful truth that this reality is not an accident.

Doctrine really matters. Doctrine of creation, and approach to origins, really matters. I hope this quote and linked paper from Paul Copan will be of use as you consider these sorts of things, and think through what might be your response. As ever, I'd welcome your comments, suggestions for things to read, and so on! Thanks for reading.

*page 1, Paul Copan, "The Days of Genesis: An Old Earth View", http://paulcopan.com/articles/pdf/revised-genesis-science.pdf