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I am a licensed pastor in the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, and entered the ministry in February 2004. Feel free to post your questions here regarding Scripture and/or theology, and I will try to answer them. Please understand that I, like any Christian, am by no means an expert on the Bible, religion or the ways of God. I see every day as an opportunity to grow in my own knowledge. I pray this forum will be a place where we can all learn and grow together through the sharing of our ideas and our individual understandings of God's Word.

Do you take the story of Creation literally or figuratively? Why?

Trekkix wrote:Do you take the story of Creation literally or figuratively? Why?

That is an excellent question, and not an easy one to answer. When one looks at the Genesis account of creation literally, questions arise regarding things like the firmament of water in the dome of the sky and how that physically works with the placement of the sun and moon. However, if we look at the story as God's revealing the origin of the natural world in terms the people could understand, then it makes sense. Say, for example, you want to teach a child math; a five year old can understand math in terms of one apple plus another apple equals two apples, where as he or she would not understand algebra because they are not yet at that level. God describing the world in the manner of Genesis would make sense to a people who did not have the scientific understanding we have today about things like like weather and the mechanics of the solar system.

Of course, there is also the fossil record to deal with, and scientists who claim that a particular dinosaur bone can be dated to x-million years ago, and that mammals came along much later - and of course that would point one away from a literal interpretation. But on the other hand, could the fossil record be Satan's way of causing a believer to question the accuracy of God's Word? Or, could the fact that some fossils are buried much deeper than others be the result of a world wide flood, with the compression of the layers of soil causing a different rate of decay/fossilization? None of us were there to witness, so how can we know for sure?

Additionally, many in the world believe in the theory of evolution which, if true, would totally negate the concept of seven literal days of creation. Some will say that the days were 24 hours long, others will say these are simply literary devices used by the writer to denote periods or stages in the creation, thus allowing that God could have used evolution in the process of creating the world.

Personally, I would like to believe it was done in seven literal days. I'd like to believe that Adam was a specific individual as was his wife. That's waht works for me in my faith. But... will I rule out that the creation story could be a figurative telling of how the world came to be? Well, I won't argue with someone who wishes to see it that way, because what is most important is not how we read it, but that we understand what it means: God created everything. Period. Did He do it in a week? (That's how I've always read it). Or did He do it over millions of years? (A lot of people in the world would like to believe that). A LOT of people in the world would like to believe that God had NOTHING to do with ANY of it, that we all just "happened" through a series of evolutionary stages or genetic mutations - and I simply cannot believe that.

But with all that being said, I believe that God speaks to each of us individually. And if it helps you to believe in Him to read the creation story literally, then that's great. If it helps you to believe in him to read it figuratively, then that's great too. But regardless of how it's read, the creation story tells that God created everything, and that in the beginning, before anything existed, God existed. That is what's important. I'm afraid too many people today let the arguments about literal vs figurative become the focus instead of marveling at God's creative ability. He made it ALL - no matter how He did it!

So do you believe in an old earth or a new earth?