Msg #: 5211 of 5260                  Area: ORIGINS Subboard
 From: James G. Acker                Sent: 04-28-94 15:46
   To: All                           Rcvd: -NO-
   Re: (r)creation Similar To Ev   Status: Public
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I had to jump in here at some point and indicate that the above 
"reconciliation" is similar to what Boice called progressive 
creationism in his book "Genesis:  An Expositional Commentary", 
and to which he gives guarded support.  Here's an excerpt 
(hopefully the right one):

     Mention of the plants, particularly "seed-bearing
plants with trees", creates some problems with the science
of paleobotany.  So far as we know, only very simple plants
existed early -- namely, seaweed, algae and bacteria (ED.
NOTE:  Yes, he's not a scientist) -- and these are
associated with the oceans rather than the land.  More
complex plants appeared later.  The seed-bearing plants
mentioned in Genesis are found first in the Devonian period
(about 400 million years ago).  The first trees appear in
the Pennsylvania period (i.e. about 320 million years ago).
Again, the Genesis account seems to say that plants appeared
before animals, but the fossil record shows that these
appeared simultaneously.  What can be done with these
difficulties?  It may be impossible at this stage to give a
definitive answer, but two things may be noted.  First, the
creative acts compressed in Genesis 1:11 did not necessarily
take place all at one time.  They could have taken place
over a fairly long period in which grasses could have come
first, followed by fruit trees.  Second, most of the
geological record is derived from marine rocks.  Therefore,
it does not necessarily give an accurate picture of what may
or may not have existed on land.  One does not really expect
to find fossils of large land plants in such beds.  As time
goes on there may well be additional light on this
particular period of earth's development.

     _The fourth day_.  Light had been reaching earth since
the first day of creation;  it was through its influence
that the vegetation created on day three was enabled to
appear and prosper.  But now the skies cleared sufficiently
for the heavenly bodies to become visible.  It is not said
that these were created on the fourth day;  they were
created in the initial creative work of God referred to in
Genesis 1:1.  But now they began to function as regulators
of the day an night, "as signs to mark seasons and days and
years" (Genesis 1:14).


     _The fifth day_.  On the fifth day God began to create
living creatures.  The word "create" (bara) is used here for
the first time since verse 1, probably indicating a _de
novo_ act of God, unrelated to what had been done
previously.  Earlier, God is said to have "separated",
"made", and "formed" various things.  The land itself is
said to have "produced" vegetation.  Not so with the birds
and sea creatures!  These were created by God and now began
to fill the earth that had been prepared to receive them.
     On this day too we have problems with the fossil
record, as Young and others recognize.  But these are not
overwhelming.  Young writes, "The fact that many marine
invertebrate animals such as corals and trilobites appear in
the fossil record prior to land plants implies a
contradiction between Genesis and geology.  We must,
however, keep in mind the incompleteness of the plant record
and our lack of knowledge as to the exact limits of the
categories described in verses 20-22.  It is important to
point out that the major groups in view here, that is,
birds, most fish, swimming reptiles, such as crocodiles or
the extinct mosasaurs, flying reptiles like pterodactyls,
seals and whales, do appear later in the fossil record than
most land plants.  As a generality such is the case.  Birds
first appear in the Jurassic period (ED. NOTE:  I forgot
where Archaeopteryx first occurred -- I assume that's what
he's referring to here), fish are well-developed from the
Ordovician onwards but proliferate in the Tertiary, complex
marine and aerial reptiles are Mesozoic, and large swimming
mammals are Tertiary." (2)

(2) "Creation and the Flood", p. 130.

     Young, as most other progressive creationists, allows
for some overlap of the creative days.

[And I just wanted to point out that if you don't
try to interpret Genesis 1 literally, you don't have to
attempt any of this!   You can just let the story confirm
God's creative power.]

     _The sixth day_.  One of the best arguments for the
days of Genesis 1 being periods of long duration is the
amount of creative activity recorded as having taken place
on day six.  God created land animals, divided into three
general categories:  livestock (that is, animals capable of
being domesticated), creatures that move along the ground
(the reference is to animals such as squirrels, chipmunks
and woodchucks, and may include reptiles) and wild animals
(that is, those that could not be domesticated).  Many
categories are involved because each is said to reproduce
according to "their kinds" (plural).