For most Christians, has Genesis been reduced to just “God made the world…sort of”?

Question

So many Christians these days have a much less than literal interpretation of Genesis. These guys know that evolution is real and it’s not just something that has been invented by evil scientists to kill off religion. And they know that the world is much older than 6000 years and the Noah’s Ark story is just figurative. So does that mean when you guys read your children bible bed time stories you tell them that it’s not real, it’s just symbolic? And that it still is in essence the inerrant word of God; he just doesn’t want us to take it literally anymore?

Answer 1

Let's be honest, most of us are struggling to decide what we do believe in. I certainly don't doubt God, His prescence is evident in my life...it's the human written Bible that bothers me.

Answer 2

I believe in a literal six-day creation and that Noah's ark saved him and his family from the flood which destroyed the rest of the world, just like the Bible says. It's sad if Christians would believe "science" over the Word of God. The Bible says there are two types of non-believers: Jews and Greeks. Jews seek for a sign and Greeks seek for wisdom. Jews believe if there's a miracle being done. Greeks believe when they can understand everything. God wants us to have faith when neither of these is true. After we have faith, God will confirm it, just like He did with Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, among others.

Answer 3

Poor Desiree: you know, you're either a Believer or
Not-A-Believer. True believers truly do believe in the
Holy Bible and what it says (after all, it is written by the
inspiration of our Creator). Non-Believers can make up
all sorts of stuff about scientists, bible stories, symbolics,
and it really doesn't matter as the Bible is real and true
whether they believe it or not and they'll find out for sure
at the end of their life here on Earth. End of Story.

Answer 4

I believe it literally, and it does not say the earth is only 6000 years old. The story of Noah and the ark is also real, not symbolic. God's word is inerrant, indeed. All of it.

Answer 5

I believe Genesis means what it says. The creation took place in 6 literal days.
I believe in a young earth and universe.
I look like a fool, but I believe Jesus, and I am afraid that someday my posterity or even me, in my old age, may be physically terminated for this belief.
I will tell my children what I believe and I hope they believe as well.
I am a crazy man for all the world to see but I want God to see me as a child of Abraham.

Answer 6

For Catholics God really create human being from nothing, so that is why there is a lost link in human evolution regardless of evolution of species.

Noah Ark is still in the place its took earth in the Bible. Try google earth and Mount Ararat. You must really see it.

Answer 7

seems such as you're working from a defective premise. unique sin implies the 1st sin of many that are a similar sin. the 1st sin substitute into committed by the devil. Adam and Eve observed his sin in this regard. That some believe slightly one that dies is going to hell is an occasion of somebody coming up with a end the place they do no longer think with regard to the grace and mercy of God. .

Answer 8

We know that evolution is real. We just quite do not buy that the evolution theory is a fact.

I believe that universe is put together by God. I do not care about the methods. I do believe in the Bible record though.

Answer 9

No, I tell my children that the concept of time in those days is not how we determine it. They didn't have minutes, seconds, hours, days, etc. but probably went with seasons, moon and tides. "Seven days" is not what we call a week, and someone living to 900 is not what we call that. That doesn't mean the Bible is incorrect, it means there is much we don't understand. That's why it's called "faith".

Answer 10

I'm not exactly sure who you're addressing your question to, but here is my perspective on the matter...

I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, rather than "inerrant". While there are many views about what the "inspired" means, Carol Hill put it this way:

"...the Bible in its original text accurately records historical events if considered from the worldview of the biblical authors..." She later continues "in other words, when God speaks and acts, he does so within the human drama as it is being played out at a certain time and place, with all the cultural trappings that go with it. These "cultural trappings" or worldview, get incorporated into the text alongside God's revelation." She concludes her article with this question "Which is more literal, to interpret the Bible from our twenty-first century way of looking at things, or from the worldview of the original authors?" (Carol Hill, "A Third Alternative to Concordism and Divine Accomodation: The Worldview Approach", Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, p. 129-134, June 2007)

Specifically to the question of the creation and Genesis--

I believe that God created the universe both using evolutionary and natural processes (which were in themselves, His creation) as well as direct intervention (miracles). If you're familiar with mathematical terminology (ignore this if you aren't), you might think of God's creating the universe to be a smooth curve (natural evolution) with several step functions in it (miracles). I believe that God initiated creation by bringing something out of nothing (miracle), then by using a process (natural laws) to shape it into a universe, and a planet capable of sustaining life. I believe that God caused non-sentient life (bacteria, cells, etc.) to spring from lifelessness (miracle), and then used a process (evolution) to shape it into a form that was prepared to sustain sentient-life. The endowment of sentience to life forms was another miracle I believe, and sentient life forms continued to evolve and be subject to natural processes until such time as we grew aware enough of creation and the Creator to have a knowledge of good and evil, at which point humans became spiritually accountable to God and acquired free will. Having these capacities, God revealed to us that we are to be stewards of His creation in the same sense that He is our care-taker--thus, we are in God's likeness. The remainder of Genesis I believe, traces the history of God's revelation to one specific people, in the many myriad of forms they chose to record and interpret it (poems, chronologies, stories, metaphors, etc.) I think there is symmetry between how God created the natural universe (through both process and miracles) and in how God is creating us to be His people (again, through social processes such as religion, culture, government, etc, as well as miraculous events--the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus being the chief of these miracles).

As I don't have children, I don't know yet how I'll explain this all to them when I do, but suffice it to say that I believe that there is truth both in the Bible and in "secular" knowledge, and that a mature understanding of faith and the world will require both to be studied.

As a side note, I would also point out that just because something is symbolic or figurative, does not mean it isn't "real"--symbolism and figurative speech are often literary tools to illustrate a reality which cannot be fully expressed or appreciated in plain language--for example, if I said that 9/11 was a "dark day", you would intuitively know that I am not saying that it was any more or less dark (literally) on 9/11 than on any other day, but that it was a sad day, that a tragic event took place, that there was a sense of heaviness and apprehension, all of which are conveyed through the connotations carried by one word: "dark"--of course, you would need our cultural and historical context to know that this is how I meant it. Thus, the need to understand the "worldview" of the speaker in interpreting the meaning of the message.