YOUNG EARTH CREATIONISM VERSUS OLD EARTH CREATIONISM: Which makes more sense? Is one non-biblical?

Many YOUNG EARTH CREATIONISTS (YEC) and OLD EARTH CREATIONISTS (OEC) folks may not know about this book (released in 1996 and 2011):
Genesis Unbound: A Provocative New Look at the Creation Account.  

I found it to be a very interesting viewpoint by a Hebrew language scholar. It is a recommended read.

Sailhammer addresses the six days of Genesis in his book "Genesis Unbound" as days of God preparing a specific "land" for Adam and Eve -- not the entire planet. The KJV word in Genesis in the creation account called the "earth" should be translated the "land". There was a literal six, 24-hour days of preparing or "recreating" a "specific area" on the planet that a cosmic chaos had brought waste and "void" to -- and this I agree with. 

I can totally buy into that scenario. So, Sailhammer basically is asserting the "Gap Theory" between Gen 1:1 and 1:2 which makes perfect sense to me. God allowed the warfare with Satan to reach the earth but in spite of the havoc wreaked, He started over with a new thing called "Man" the forerunner of the coming "God-Man" aka Jesus the Christ. This theory allows for an earth history of countless aeons but also allows for a subsequent 6-day "recreation". Sailhammer explains this all much better than I can.

The universe is vastly old and larger than we can imagine. And the earth is ancient as well. Mankind, (Homo sapiens, Homo sapiens neaderthalensis, Homo erectus and all the polymorphic, gender divergent Homos included), are relatively new things on this earth.

Was the Global Flood worldwide? Yes, I believe it was and a great fish swallowed Jonah and Jesus rose from the dead. I believe all these things. When the Flood happened, I have no clue. But Genesis 6 is history and not fable.

Lastly, if you ever want to experience a very unusual view of earth history then try to get through G.H. Pember's "Earth's Earliest Ages". G. H. Pember - Wikipedia
I found it an interesting and challenging read but I totally could not buy into his idea of pre-Adamic men roaming the earth. Just too whacked for me . . .

I quote from another webpage,"Pember distinguishes between corrupted "angels" who joined Satan's rebellion, and "demons," the spirits of the sinful pre-Adamite creatures who walked Earth in ages past. If there was a pre-Adamite race of creatures or beings, where are their fossils? Pember offers several suggestions: God might have zapped or rotted them; they might have been swallowed up by the Earth; or, most likely, they may be entombed at the bottom of the abyss, where their spirits are still imprisoned. . . ." See what I mean, just too "out there".
 
I used to be a YEC after I was first saved in 1974, reading The Genesis Flood and other ICR materials. I was part of the Triangle Association for Creationism About Us | TASC in .... as I was a medical research scientist at the time. I kept doing creationism research and stumbled upon Dan Wonderley's God's Time-Records in Ancient Sediments

 

and it blew my YEC mind-set out of the water. I loaned my copy to other members of the Triangle Association for Creationism and they refused to even read it! I have been a very comfortable OEC ever since.

OEC folks don't see extreme age as an issue and since evolution just CANNOT ever happen -- extreme age doesn't make any difference for this issue.

1) Current day OEC has nothing to do with Darwinism. FACT.

2) Earth history has been analyzed scientifically in many ways by countless believing scientists who have come to believe in an old earth. They did not use presumption nor fall into conjecture. They used the logical minds God gave them. Because someone states the bible only teaches YEC does NOT equal the revelation of God. YEC adherents merely assert their chosen belief as the only truth because they think their narrow-minded interpretation of the Genesis creation account is God-breathed. It is NOT.

3) LOL all you like. When the Lord re-created, repaired and remade the most recent earth we have today, that was previously made formless and void -- in that unique, re-creative time-frame was what Jesus was referring to as "the beginning of creation". I speak of the well-known "Gap Theory" between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 here. Careful analysis of the ancient Hebrew words used in Genesis 1 give a strong support for the "Gap Theory". Is God capable of repairing a devastated ancient earth? Of course He is! And can the Creator Jesus correctly call it "the beginning"? Of course He can!

Were Adam and Eve created on the 6th day of this recreation of the ancient earth? Of course! Were they "latecomers" or "implants" on an older earth? Yes!

Is there a real debate about what Genesis is saying here? Of course there is! Believing Christians have debated the events of the record of creation for many years -- and it will continue until Christ returns!

There is not a question here about believing the bible -- it is simply about correct interpretation. Because someone doesn't agree with your interpretation -- does not mean they don't believe the scripture. To assert such is simply holding onto dogma and not seeking the path to the truth.

You can be a YEC if you like -- just don't assert OEC adherents don't believe the bible. That is uncalled for.

The YEC idea of "instant history" is a very overused excuse offered by YEC adherents. Why did God need to do this? It would be as if The Creator set out to deceive His intelligent humans. A vast ancient universe speaks of the timelessness of The Creator Himself. Why is there any need to explain this vast and ancient universe as anything else but what it appears? 

Again, the universe and the earth are very, very olde.

Something awful happened to the earth after Genesis 1:1

There was then a local remaking, reforming of "the land" as Sailhammer calls it. Genesis 1:2 and thereafter discusses this.

Humans were brought into being by special creation from dust.

Hominids existed in various sizes and polymorphs but they aren't our ancestors. They too were special creatures made by God.

There is micro-change in lifeforms but no macro-change. Whales don't leave the oceans. And dinosaurs don't change into birds.

Colossians 1:16

End of story. Just accept it. I do and I am totally at peace with it. From a former stubborn YEC to now a fully informed OEC, I am totally at rest with biblical origins issues.

May YEC major advocate, Ken Ham, see the light too one day.   

I went to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky last year and was impressed by the size of everything but going inside, I was saddened to see it was floor after floor of Ken Ham's "accept-YEC" show and no mention of the OEC alternative. Also, the whole gestalt of the Ark Encounter reminded of a "Disney" themed attraction that spilled finally into the gift shop. Ham even had a restaurant named after Noah's wife which he made up himself.

 

 

Anyway, YEC as such comes across very close-minded and psuedo-scientific in its tenets and arguments. YEC adherents even claim Christians who disagree with YEC don't believe the Bible and cause salvation itself to be questioned. That is just not fair.

I recommend YEC and OEC folks read Snoke's A Biblical Case for an Old Earth,  

 

Young's The Bible, Rocks and Time: Geological Evidence for the Age of the Earth, 

Whorton's Peril in Paradise: Theology, Science, and the Age of the Earth,  

 

Assorted authors' The Grand Canyon, Monument to an Ancient Earth: Can Noah's Flood Explain the Grand Canyon?  

 

and Yilmaz's Top 20 Proofs for an Old Earth: Why Young Earth Creationism is Untenable: Excerpts from the book Deliver Us From Evolution?

I also just read Watchman Nee's The Mystery of Creation and it is fascinating.

Lastly, here is a great website chock full of info about Old Earth Creationism and why it makes biblical sense: https://www.oldearth.org/