Young-earth creationism
A view held among orthodox Christians
The view that God created the world in six ordinary days, a few thousand years ago.
Also called: young-earth, young earth creationist, six-day creation, 24-hour days
What it means
Young-earth creationists read the days of Genesis 1 as ordinary days, each marked by "evening and morning." Adding the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 to the rest of biblical history, they conclude that the earth is thousands, not billions, of years old. Many also hold that Noah's flood was global and accounts for much of the geological record.
Holders appeal to the plain reading of Genesis 1, to the Fourth Commandment, which grounds the weekly Sabbath in God's six days of work, and to the conviction that death did not enter the world until Adam sinned. They see this as the reading most of the church held before the rise of modern geology.
The Westminster Confession says God made the world "in the space of six days," and many Reformed Christians take that literally. Others within the same confessional churches hold old-earth views, and several Reformed denominations have judged that the confession allows them. This site treats the age of the earth as a question on which faithful Christians may differ.
In Scripture
The first day is marked by evening and morning.
God grounds the Sabbath in His making the heavens and earth in six days.
Jesus speaks of God making them male and female from the beginning of creation.
The genealogies give ages and years from Adam onward.
Holders read this as teaching that death entered the world through Adam's sin.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 4.1; LBCF 1689 4.1
On this site: Age of the earth
Related terms
Old-earth creationismA 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.
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.