Back in the day when I was a high school and college student (late 70’s, early 80’s), I recall young people wrestling with the issue of whether or not the opening chapters of Genesis require us to believe that the earth was created in 6 x 24 = 144 hours and that macroevolution could not possibly have occurred. Because I was brought up as a Roman Catholic, and the Catholic church doesn’t seem to have a problem with non-literal reading of Genesis, this was not a burning question for me personally. But I remember young evangelicals and their friends arguing about this a lot, and the vast majority aligned themselves with either of these two camps.
1. The world was created in 144 hours, evolution didn’t happen, and if you don’t believe that, you are stepping in deep spiritual doo-doo.
2. The world is billions of years old, evolution did happen, and if you don’t agree you must be ignorant, foolish or intellectually dishonest.
Although these two positions seem like polar opposites, their proponents did agree on one thing: the Bible and Science are at odds. If you believe one, you must discredit the other.
What is a Bible-believing Christian?
April 22, 2009 in Commentary by admin
Christians of different denominations read different Bibles. The collection of texts known as the Bible has changed over time. The earliest Christians had the Old Testament, some letters from the apostles and oral tradition. A list of 22 books of the New Testament appeared in the Muratorian Canon around AD 180. In AD 365, Athanasius of Alexandria listed 27 books. A Latin edition of the Bible called the Vulgate appeared in AD 383 and became the standard for the Western world. In addition to the 66 books found in the current Protestant Bible, the Vulgate also had the so-called deuterocanonical books and apocrypha. Some differences persist today. For instance, the Ethiopian “narrow” canon includes 81 books.
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Tags: Church History, Scripture