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1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.

3God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. 5God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 8God called the expanse “sky”. There was evening and there was morning, a second day.

9God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear;” and it was so. 10God called the dry land “earth”, and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas”. God saw that it was good. 11God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the earth;” and it was so. 12The earth yielded grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with their seeds in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

14God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years; 15and let them be for lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth;” and it was so. 16God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. 17God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth, 18and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. 19There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

20God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” 21God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good. 22God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

24God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;” and it was so. 25God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.

26God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. 28God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food. 30To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so.

31God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

Is the Creation Account in Genesis One an Historical Account or a Myth?

Is the Creation Account in Genesis One an Historical Account or a Myth?

Topical Study | Gen 1:1 | Hershel Wayne House

There is controversy today in the Christian community far more important than differences among believers in many decades regarding the nature of the Genesis account in Genesis 1-3. Liberal scholars have generally believed the creation account was not truly representative of an actual event but embraced a Darwinist explanation of the creation of the world (what is often called macro-evolution), that contends that all of life on earth developed from very small forms of life that were created by an accident in the primordial fluids of ancient earth billions of years ago. Even so, the current debate extends much further than believing in long  periods of time for the creation days and even accepting some form of evolution. The current debate is whether Adam and Eve and the events transpiring around them in the biblical account ever occurred and whether Genesis is only a myth rather than factual history.

Christians through most of Christian history (and the Jewish people before Christianity) have embraced a literal and factual creation by God that is found in Genesis 1, as well as the more detailed creation of humans in Genesis 2. In current Christianity, several scholars, who are generally conservative in most areas of theology, are advocating that the Genesis One account is, in reality, a myth or fiction. Moreover, there is a rejection of an actual Adam and Eve, a temptation and fall, and many of the events in the book of Genesis and elsewhere in the Old Testament. Allegedly, God inspired a mythical account that provided a story in which He could teach an inerrant truth about Him being the ultimate Creator of the universe.

However, there are several reasons to reject this manner of interpreting Genesis. First, this alternate view is contrary to the understanding of various persons in the Old Testament, Jesus, the apostles, and the church for most of its history. Second, though the factual account of creation and the fall arguably contains some poetical features, the essence is a true and historical account that is consistent with the mainline scientific understanding of the chronology of the creative events. Additionally, the biblical account of creation is not in agreement with Ancient Near East creation stories, upon which many current scholars rely in rejecting the factual, historical account found in Scripture, as well as the uniqueness of the Genesis account of creation.

I would encourage you to view the free YouTube video, Is Genesis History? Click https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UM82qxxskZE&feature=youtu.be in the browser of your phone, iPad, or Computer for this excellent discussion of the historicity of the book of Genesis.

The writers of the Bible believed in the historical doctrine of the creation of the world and the specific creation of Adam and Eve. The Bible contains about 300 verses on creation.

Gen 1:1-27; 2:1-23; 3:1, 19, 23; 5:1, 2; 6:6, 7; 7:4; 9:6

Exod 4:11, 32; 14:21; 20:11; 31:17

Deut 32:15

2 Kgs 19:15

1 Chr 1:1; 16:26

2 Chr 2:12

Neh 9:6

Job 4:7; 9:8, 9; 10:8; 26:7; 28:6; 31:15; 32:22; 33:4, 6, 7; 34:15; 38:4-6; 40:15

Ps 8:3-8; 19:1-4; 24:1; 33:6; 52:7; 86:9; 89:11, 12; 90:2, 3; 94:9; 95:5, 6; 96:5; 100:3; 102:25; 104:2-5, 19, 24, 25, 30; 115:8, 15; 119:73; 121:2; 125:3, 8; 135:7; 139:14, 15; 146:6; 148:1-5

Prov 8:23-29; 14:31; 16:4; 17:5; 20:1, 2, 12; 22:2; 26:10

Eccl 3:11; 7:14, 29; 11:5; 12:1, 7

Isa 17:7; 22:11; 27:11; 29:16; 37:16, 26; 40:21, 26, 28; 41:20; 42:5; 43:1, 7, 10, 17, 21; 44:2, 21, 24; 45:7, 8, 12, 18; 48:13; 49:5; 51:13, 16; 66:2, 22

Jer 1:5; 10:11-13, 16; 27:5; 29:9; 31:35; 32:17; 33:2; 51:15, 16

Ezek 21:30; 28:13, 15

Hos 8:14

Amos 4:13; 5:8; 9:6

Jonah 1:9

Hab 1:14

Zech 12:1

Mal 2:10, 15

Matt 13:35; 19:4, 5, 6, 8; 24:21; 25:34

Mark 10:6; 13:19; 16:15

Luke 3:38; 11:50

John 1:3, 10; 8:44; 9:32; 17:24

Acts 7:50; 14:15; 17:24

Rom 1:19, 20; 5:12, 14-19; 8:19-23, 39; Rom 13:1, 4

1 Cor 11:3, 8, 9, 12; 15:22, 38, 45-47, 49

2 Cor 4:6

Eph 1:4, 39

Col 1:16, 17, 23; 3:10

1 Tim 2:13, 14; 4:3, 4

Heb 1:2, 3, 10, 14; 3:4; 4:3, 4, 10, 13; 9:11, 26; 12:27

Jas 3:9, 10

1 Pet 1:20; 4:19

2 Pet 3:3, 4-7, 13

Rev 3:14; 4:8-11; 10:6; 13:8; 14:7; 17:8; 21:1, 5; 22:13

Knowing the Truth about Creation, p. 150, from Norm Geisler, The Importance of Creation (PowerPoint Presentation)