Chapter 12 is titled 'Other Theories of Genesis 1 Either Go Too Far or Not Far Enough'. Those who want to refer to chapter 11 can do so here. This chapter briefly discusses about other theories like Young Earth Creationism, Old Earth Creationism, Framework Hypothesis etc.
What's the problem with Young Earth Creationism? YEC proponents argue that the universe is created somewhere between 6,000-20,000 years. Not everyone holds the same view, but compared to the current scientific understanding, YEC's view of the age of the earth is very young. They want to read the Scripture at face-value, yet their face-value reading is not really face-value reading. How do they reconcile current scientific finding with their interpretation of the Scripture? For example, current scientific understanding would say that the stars are millions of years old... after all the light from the star to reach the earth would have taken million of years, and this means that the existence of the stars would at least be millions of years. One solution for the YEC is to say that in reality God made the stars only recently yet HE made the stars look really old to the observers. John does not get into this much! But if we apply similar reasoning to other areas, the result would be devastating: God made our scientific enterprise fail to arrive at a correct understanding! If that is so, what kind of God are worshiping? A God who deceives human being? YEC's concept leads to a demon; not the God the of Bible!
Old Earth Creationism like the view proposed by Hugh Ross too reads too much into the text. Framework Hypothesis is fine, provided it adds the component of 'functional reading' of the creation narrative into their view. Gap theory too has a flaw.
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