Most of you know that I don't get too caught up these days in the Creationist, YECs vs. OECs "time wars" which constantly are battling over the length of time of the Creation "days" referenced in Genesis. Young earth / universe creationists (YECS) insist the universe and earth are only in the thousands of years old, while old earth / universe creationists (OECs) believe these were created BILLIONS of years ago. Although I personally lean towards a Creation that is billions of years old - and I do so per various passages in the Bible AND per what modern science has revealed, nonetheless, I have YEC friends and respect all Christians' rights to hold that viewpoint. The authenticity of one's Christianity isn't based on such an issue - the New Testament reveals that ONLY one's relationship with Christ is its basis! As for how OLD the Creation is or how long it took for God to create the universe and world, as our Creator is an ETERNAL Being - well, while it's an interesting debate, it's simply WAY down on my list of important issues for Christians. These OEC vs. YEC arguments are often HIGHLY divisive as well as simply unnecessary, distracting, and often, outright damaging to the God's Church. While the time issue of the Creation days should merely be an interesting and civil discussion, frequently, it quickly spirals into serious arguments and animosity between Christians - which is where I have a problem with the topic.
But what anyone else believes about the age of the Creation doesn't bother me, as long as we respect each other's right to personal views on it. We might ALL be wrong in key ways about how God created. Whatever our views, we should ALL treat each other as respected followers of Christ. But leading young earth creationist Ken Ham and his organization Answers in Genesis (AIG) have a LONG history of demonizing Christians who harbor an old (billions of years) universe view, as they widely have asserted such Christians to be "compromisers" that "don't truly believe what the Bible says in the Creation passages" - including much of the Bible. Further, Ham and co. assert the main reason for OEC views has to do with the influence of the Darwinists and evolution - which is mostly absurd. While I personally don't believe in MACRO evolution. I most certainly DO believe Adam and Eve were real human beings that fell into sin. I also believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God and take it VERY seriously - as do millions of my fellow OEC-leaning Christians. Ham further insists that the idea that the "days" of Creation were only believed to be long periods by key people in the Church after the influence of Darwin, having a desire to accommodate Darwinism. Ham and AIG have made a virtual idol out of their young earth creationist views, demonizing Christians with other views on the age issue, and they constantly use selective, literalist interpretations of the pertinent Creation passages - yet are inconsistent about how do so.
Anyway, given the above, I really appreciate this enlightening short video by Dr. Gavin Ortlund, as he reveals the false assertions that Ken Ham and AIG have made about how and why many Christians have embraced an old-earth / old-universe view. He also looks at what key church leaders and thinkers actually thought about this Creation / age issue, LONG BEFORE the time of Darwin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL9t3O-1E7w
