Old-earth creationism
A view held among orthodox Christians
The view that God created the world directly and purposefully, but over a long period rather than in six ordinary days.
Also called: old-earth, day-age view, analogical days view, progressive creationism
What it means
Old-earth creationists affirm that God created everything from nothing, that He made Adam and Eve specially, and that the fall was a real event. But they read the days of Genesis 1 in a way that allows a very old earth. The day-age view takes each day as a long era. The analogical days view holds that God's workdays are like ours but not identical to them. Others combine these ideas.
Holders point out that the Hebrew word for "day" can mean a longer period, as it does in Genesis 2:4, that the seventh day has no closing "evening and morning," and that Scripture speaks of God's time differently from ours. Many also hold that the testimony of creation itself, which God made, is not meant to mislead.
Old-earth views have been held by respected confessional theologians since the nineteenth century. Many who hold the Westminster Confession's "space of six days" literally disagree, but several Reformed bodies allow these views. Old-earth creationism differs from theistic evolution in that it usually holds that God created kinds of life, and especially humans, directly.
In Scripture
The whole creation week is called the day the LORD God made the heavens and earth.
A thousand years in God's sight are like a day that has passed.
Holders note that the account of the seventh day lacks the closing evening and morning.
The heavens declare God's glory and pour out knowledge.
Holders read God's seventh-day rest as continuing to the present.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 4.1; LBCF 1689 4.1
On this site: Age of the earth
Related terms
Young-earth creationismA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that God created the world in six ordinary days, a few thousand years ago.
Framework hypothesisA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that the six days of Genesis 1 are a literary framework arranging God's works by topic, not a timeline of how long creation took.
Theistic evolutionA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that God created life, including human bodies, through the long process of evolution that biologists describe.
Historical AdamHistoric orthodoxy
Adam and Eve were real people, created directly by God, from whom the whole human race descends and through whom sin entered the world.