she was formed not from just any part of his body, but from his side, so that it should be shown that she was created for the partnership of love, lest, if perhaps she had been made from his head, she should be perceived as set over man in domination; or if from his feet, as if subject to him in servitudeThe Sentences, Book 2, Dist 18, Ch 2
Some might ask what the consensus of the church fathers was regarding the age of the earth. Overwhelmingly the church fathers believed in a young Earth. Thankfully, they didn't have the modern scientific community breathing down their necks. Some, ironically, use St. Augustine's view as precedent for not taking the creation week literally so that they can feel justified in taking an old-Earth view. Yes, St. Augustine wasn't literal but he actually believed that God created instantly and revealed it over the space of a week for our understanding, not over vast geological ages.2 So, to use St. Augustine to promote an old-Earth view is disingenuous because he actually believed in a slightly younger-Earth than typical young-Earth creationists.Darwin\'s Sandcastle: Evolution\'s Failure in the Light of Scripture and the Scientific Evidence (p. 30). Roman Roads Press
Some may object, saying that Genesis is not a science textbook. Young-Earth creationists don't claim it is! History books can communicate the idea of deep time. I don't know Hebrew, but I do know that King Asa went against an Ethiopian army of a million in 2 Chronicles 14:9, so apparently big numbers can be communicated in the Hebrew language.Darwin\'s Sandcastle: Evolution\'s Failure in the Light of Scripture and the Scientific Evidence (p. 27). Roman Roads Press
What was its intended meaning? Most people reading Genesis 1–11 don't walk away thinking that it spanned deep time. Translators chose the English word day for a reason. If the Hebrew authors wanted to convey the idea of vast amounts of time compatible with the secular geological narrative of Earth history, they have other, more appropriate words at their disposal. For instance, olam means a long duration of time.Darwin\'s Sandcastle: Evolution\'s Failure in the Light of Scripture and the Scientific Evidence (p. 26-27). Roman Roads Press
What does yom mean? Yom is the Hebrew word for "day" and has a similar semantic range as the English word day. It doesn't always mean a 24-hour solar day. It can mean just the daylight portion of the 24-hour period, or it can mean a generation or so, as when your Grandpa says, "in my day (generation) we put in an honest day's (daylight period) work." However, in the Old Testament the overwhelming majority of the time it means a regular solar day.Darwin\'s Sandcastle: Evolution\'s Failure in the Light of Scripture and the Scientific Evidence (p. 25-26). Roman Roads Press
God created an awesome world. God intentionally loaded the world with amazing things to leave you astounded. The carefully air-conditioned termite mound in Africa, the tart crunchiness of an apple, the explosion of thunder, the beauty of an orchid, the interdependent systems of the human body, the inexhaustible pounding of the ocean waves, and thousands of other created sights, sounds, touches, and tastes—God designed all to be awesome. And he intended you to be daily amazed.
God was under no constraint, no obligation, no necessity to create. That He chose to do so was purely a sovereign act on His part, caused by nothing outside Himself, determined by nothing but His own mere good pleasure; for He "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph 1:11). That He did create was simply for His manifestative glory.
it is quite evident that [Genesis 1] is intended as a record of history, and is clearly so regarded in Scripture, cf. Ex 20:11; Neh. 9:6; Ps. 33:6,9; 145:2-6; (2) the opening of Genesis "lacks nearly every element of acknowledged Hebrew poetry" (Strong); and (3) this narrative is inseparably connected with the succeeding history, and is therefore most naturally regarded as itself historical.Systematic Theology, 158
When the Babylonian account was discovered, many scholars hastily assumed that the Biblical narrative was derived from the Babylonian source, forgetting that there are at least two other possibilities, namely, (a) that the Babylonian story is a corrupted reproduction of the narrative in Genesis; or (b) that both are derived from a common, more primitive source.Systematic Theology, 151