God & Science
Genesis is just a myth. Six days and a worldwide flood can't be real history.
Short answer
Genesis is written as history, and the rest of the Bible treats it that way. It traces family lines from Adam to Abraham, Jesus spoke of Adam, Abel and Noah as real people, and God grounded our week in the creation week: "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested" (Exodus 20:11). God made everything "very good" (Genesis 1:31). Death, suffering and decay came in through sin.
In simple words: Genesis tells us what really happened: God made the whole world in six days, and it was very good. Sad things like sickness and death came later, when people sinned.
Response
Many people assume the opening chapters of Genesis are poetry or legend. But they don't read like either. They read like the rest of Genesis: history, full of names, ages, places and family lines. Genesis 5 and 11 trace the generations from Adam to Abraham, with ages: "So Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died" (Genesis 5:5). The Jewish people have long read it as history. The traditional Jewish calendar still counts its years from creation, and the first-century historian Josephus began his history of the Jews with Adam.
Genesis 1 marks its days carefully: "And there was evening, and there was morning— the first day" (Genesis 1:5). In the Old Testament, "day" joined to a number, like "the first day" or "the seventh day", normally means an ordinary day. And God built Israel's week on the creation week: "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested" (Exodus 20:11). If the days were vast ages, that comparison would fall apart. Some sincere believers read the days as long ages to fit modern dating. We understand why, but we believe the text itself, and the rest of Scripture, point to ordinary days.
The rest of the Bible treats Genesis as history. Luke traces Jesus' family line back to "the son of Adam, the son of God" (Luke 3:38). Jude calls Enoch "the seventh from Adam" (Jude 1:14). Jesus said, "from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female'" (Mark 10:6), spoke of "the blood of Abel" (Luke 11:51), and compared his return to "the days of Noah" (Matthew 24:37). Paul builds the gospel on a real Adam: "since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man" (1 Corinthians 15:21).
This matters for the gospel. God looked at what he had made, "and indeed, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). Death entered the world through sin (Romans 5:12), and creation itself "was subjected to futility" and still groans (Romans 8:20-22). Suffering, disease and decay weren't God's original design; they came through sin. That's why Jesus came: to undo the curse. "Behold, I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5).
The flood was worldwide: "all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered" (Genesis 7:19). God promised, "never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth" (Genesis 9:11), a promise that fits a global flood, since local floods still happen. Peter says "the world of that time perished in the flood" (2 Peter 3:6), and Jesus spoke of the flood that "swept them all away" (Matthew 24:39).
What about a "solid dome" in the sky? The Hebrew word raqia means something stretched or spread out, and Genesis itself says, "God called the expanse 'sky'" (Genesis 1:8). Like us, the Bible often describes the world as it looks, the way we still say the sun rises (Ecclesiastes 1:5).
Doesn't science say the earth is billions of years old? Dating methods rest on assumptions about the unobserved past, such as starting conditions and rates that never changed. Creation scientists, including those at Answers in Genesis and Creation Ministries International, argue that the evidence fits a young earth and a worldwide flood. Science is a gift for studying the world God made. But no one was there at the beginning except God, and he has told us what happened.
Key evidence
- Genesis 5 and 11 give a continuous family line from Adam to Abraham, with ages.
- Exodus 20:11 grounds the seven-day week in the six days of creation.
- Jesus treated Adam and Eve, Abel and Noah as real people (Mark 10:6; Luke 11:51; Matthew 24:37-39).
- Paul ties death to Adam's sin and the resurrection to Christ (Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22).
- God's promise never again to flood the earth (Genesis 9:11) fits a worldwide flood.
- The traditional Jewish calendar counts its years from creation, and Josephus began his Antiquities of the Jews with Adam.
Bible passages
- Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created.
- Genesis 1:31 Everything was very good.
- Exodus 20:11 In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth.
- Mark 10:6 From the beginning of creation, male and female.
- Genesis 7:19-20 All the high mountains were covered.
- Romans 8:20-22 Creation groans under the curse.
Discussion questions
- Why do you think Genesis includes so many family lines and ages?
- How does Exodus 20:11 connect our week to creation?
- Why does it matter for the gospel that death came through sin?