Progressive Creationism (Day-Age
Creation) is an attempt to
harmonize the Bible with current scientific beliefs. It assumes the days of the
creation were actually broad lengths of time, and proposes that
God separately created the various kinds of organisms and later
man, but over a long period of time. It also accepts the evolutionary
time scale (simple to complex over millions of years) but has
more input from God. Hugh Ross and the Reasons
to Believe ministry teach progressive creationism. Use
the following to view a
progressive
creationist timeline chart.
Gap Theory Creation assumes that a vast
period of time elapsed between the first two verses of Genesis.
Most variations of this theory interpret Genesis 1:1 as the first
creation, which included the creation of the heavens, the earth,
plants and animals, and even a race of humans preceding Adam.
Perhaps billions of years then elapsed, during which time Satan
and his angels fell and corrupted the inhabitants of the earth.
God then judged and destroyed the earth and all its inhabitants.
Thus, the earth became "formless and void" (Genesis
1:2) and remained that way for eons. The second creation, according
to the gap theory, began in Genesis 1:3 with the first day of
the (re)creation week—the familiar six-day creation.
Theistic Evolution accepts the theory of
evolution as the mechanisms for the development of life on earth
from a single common ancestor. Some theistic evolutionists believe abiogenesis is impossible without
a direct act of God, and others assume God created the universe
in such a way that life would eventually result.
