From: jgacker@news.gsfc.nasa.gov (James G. Acker)
Subject: Progressive Creationism Part 2
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 17:20:30 GMT


	Disclaimer:  The following text does not necessarily represent
my own personal views.

     Part two of "Progressive Creationism" from
James Montgomery Boice' "Genesis:  An Expositional
Commentary"

     _The first day_.  After the first verse of Genesis the
focal point of the creation narrative is the earth.
Therefore, the statement of God in verse 3 ("Let there be
light") refers to the appearance of light on earth.  This
would mean that the clouds covering the earth had now
thinned enough for the light of the sun, which had been
shining all along, to penetrate to the earth's surface.  As
the earth rotated, there would be periods of night and day,
although the sun and other heavenly bodies would not be
visible.  This is called the first day of creation because
it was the first significant event in the preparation of the
earth for habitation.

     _The second day_.  On this day the cooling process
continued with a further thinning of the clouds and a
separation between them and the waters that now lay on the
earth.  These verses (vv. 6-8) speak of the firmament
(correctly translated "an expanse" in the NIV), the waters
under the firmament, and the waters above the firmament.
What is distinct about this day is neither the existence of
the cloud cover nor the existence of the waters that covered
the earth;  these existed before.  The new element is the
appearance of the firmament or atmosphere, what we would
call the sky.  This separated the two waters that before
were close together.  Interestingly, current scientific
thought also views the development of the atmosphere and
oceans as a fairly recent event in earth's history (1).

(1) See Brancazio, P. and A.G.W. Cameron, "The Origin and
Evolution of Atmospheres and Oceans" N.Y., John Wiley and
Sons, 1964)  Cited by Young, "Creation and the Flood", p.
124.

     _The third day_.  This day marks the separation of the
great land masses from the oceans and the appearance of
vegetation on the land.  Presumably the land appeared as the
result of volcanic eruptions and the buckling of the earth's
crust.  Psalm 104: 6-9 describes this appearance: "You
covered it [the earth] with the deep as with a garment;  the
waters stood above the mountains.  But at your rebuke the
waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to
flight;  they flowed over the mountains, they went down into
the valleys, to the place you assigned for them.  You set a
boundary they cannot cross;  never again will they cover the
earth."  These verses suggest that the land appeared
gradually as it was drained of its covering.
     Mention of the plants, particularly "seed-bearing
plants with trees", creates some problems with the science
of paleobotany.  So far as we know, only very simple plants
existed early -- namely, seaweed, algae and bacteria (ED.
NOTE:  Yes, he's not a scientist) -- and these are
associated with the oceans rather than the land.  More
complex plants appeared later.  The seed-bearing plants
mentioned in Genesis are found first in the Devonian period
(about 400 million years ago).  The first trees appear in
the Pennsylvania period (i.e. about 320 million years ago).
Again, the Genesis account seems to say that plants appeared
before animals, but the fossil record shows that these
appeared simultaneously.  What can be done with these
difficulties?  It may be impossible at this stage to give a
definitive answer, but two things may be noted.  First, the
creative acts compressed in Genesis 1:11 did not necessarily
take place all at one time.  They could have taken place
over a fairly long period in which grasses could have come
first, followed by fruit trees.  Second, most of the
geological record is derived from marine rocks.  Therefore,
it does not necessarily give an accurate picture of what may
or may not have existed on land.  One does not really expect
to find fossils of large land plants in such beds.  As time
goes on there may well be additional light on this
particular period of earth's development.

     _The fourth day_.  Light had been reaching earth since
the first day of creation;  it was through its influence
that the vegetation created on day three was enabled to
appear and prosper.  But now the skies cleared sufficiently
for the heavenly bodies to become visible.  It is not said
that these were created on the fourth day;  they were
created in the initial creative work of God referred to in
Genesis 1:1.  But now they began to function as regulators
of the day an night, "as signs to mark seasons and days and
years" (Genesis 1:14).

     Seven more columns of text to go!

     Jim Acker
     jgacker@neptune.gsfc.nasa.gov

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