From: jgacker@news.gsfc.nasa.gov (James G. Acker)
Subject: Progressive Creationism Part 3
Summary:  a few more days 
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 13:04:09 GMT


     Progressive Creationism Part 3, from James Montgomery
Boice's "Genesis:  An Expositional Commentary":

     _The fifth day_.  On the fifth day God began to create
living creatures.  The word "create" (bara) is used here for
the first time since verse 1, probably indicating a _de
novo_ act of God, unrelated to what had been done
previously.  Earlier, God is said to have "separated",
"made", and "formed" various things.  The land itself is
said to have "produced" vegetation.  Not so with the birds
and sea creatures!  These were created by God and now began
to fill the earth that had been prepared to receive them.
     On this day too we have problems with the fossil
record, as Young and others recognize.  But these are not
overwhelming.  Young writes, "The fact that many marine
invertebrate animals such as corals and trilobites appear in
the fossil record prior to land plants implies a
contradiction between Genesis and geology.  We must,
however, keep in mind the incompleteness of the plant record
and our lack of knowledge as to the exact limits of the
categories described in verses 20-22.  It is important to
point out that the major groups in view here, that is,
birds, most fish, swimming reptiles, such as crocodiles or
the extinct mosasaurs, flying reptiles like pterodactyls,
seals and whales, do appear later in the fossil record than
most land plants.  As a generality such is the case.  Birds
first appear in the Jurassic period (ED. NOTE:  I forgot
where Archaeopteryx first occurred -- I assume that's what
he's referring to here), fish are well-developed from the
Ordovician onwards but proliferate in the Tertiary, complex
marine and aerial reptiles are Mesozoic, and large swimming
mammals are Tertiary." (2)

(2) "Creation and the Flood", p. 130.

     Young, as most other progressive creationists, allows
for some overlap of the creative days.
     _The sixth day_.  One of the best arguments for the
days of Genesis 1 being periods of long duration is the
amount of creative activity recorded as having taken place
on day six.  God created land animals, divided into three
general categories:  livestock (that is, animals capable of
being domesticated), creatures that move along the ground
(the reference is to animals such as squirrels, chipmunks
and woodchucks, and may include reptiles) and wild animals
(that is, those that could not be domesticated).  Many
categories are involved because each is said to reproduce
according to "their kinds" (plural).  On this day God also
created man, last but at the peak of the creation order.
Since God is said to have created each of these three
categories of animals and man independently and after
certain specific kinds, the possibility of general evolution
seems to be discounted. /// (ED. NOTE:  IMPORTANT! - I do
not share this interpretation.  Please keep this in mind
when flaming.) ///  Still, there is no reason to rule out
some kinds of development within species (microevolution),
such as the alleged development of the horse.  The language
of the verses suggests a pause between the making of animals
and the creation of man, and there may have been other
pauses also.
     The progressive creationists' view of God's creation is
tentative (ED. NOTE:  copyright 1982), for not all the
scientific evidence is in and even the narrative of Genesis
may not be understood as well as we shall understand it some
day.  But in general terms this is what the progressive
viewpoint holds.  Its adherents regard it as a reasonable
harmony between the Genesis record and the facts of geology
and other scientific disciplines."

Preview:  the next three columns are entitled "WHAT ARE THE
PROBLEMS?"

Disclaiming myself all over the place:  this series is being
posted to provide a "Theory of Creation" as viewed by a
noted Biblical scholar and several Christian geologists.  It
does not represent my personal views.

     Jim Acker
     jgacker@neptune.gsfc.nasa.gov

I have also just scanned Boice's chapter on "The Sixth Day"
regarding the creation of man.  While he unfortunately gives
some credence to discredited creationist claims, the
discussion will surprise you.  It floored me.