What factors, according to Young-Earth Creationists, might inhibit the Holy Spirit from guiding a Christian to a literal interpretation of Genesis?

Question

This question lies at the intersection of spirituality and exegesis.

If we assume that the Holy Spirit guides Christians in understanding scripture and that Young-Earth Creationism is true, what prevents the Holy Spirit from leading all Christians to interpret the book of Genesis literally?

If a Christian is deeply connected with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, akin to figures like the Apostle Paul or the Apostle John (which I'm envisioning here as role models), and if they diligently study the Scriptures, seeking the Holy Spirit's guidance, does this inevitably result in a literal interpretation of Genesis?

In such a scenario, would rejecting a literal interpretation of Genesis indicate a lack of spirituality from a Young-Earth Creationist standpoint?

Answer 1

The writer of Hebrews said something that touches on this topic:

¹¹We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. ¹²In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:11-14)

God does not reveal all things clearly and quickly to a person, no matter how faithful. There are basic matters related to salvation, then there are matters of wisdom that we only master as we progress in faith. For example, take the issue of whether women are called by God to serve as pastors and elders. I held one view on this question for about thirty-five years. I read articles on the subject, sat through church discussions, debated with people and prayed over the matter. Then three years ago, I prayed again about this and the Holy Spirit led me to passages that I had overlooked or not understood properly. A week later, I did a 180 and reversed my position. I am in my sixties. I took classes at seminary, have read widely on theology, and have written books on Christian topics. Why did it take so long for me to hear the truth? It is because of spiritual deafness. That is the general answer.

However, concerning the topic of Young Earth Creationism, there is a more specific reason why people can go long years holding to one view or another, when the opposite is correct. That reason is time. God has reserved for his apostles and prophets, and in many instances Himself alone, the knowledge of time.

When will Christ return? Jesus told us this:

"But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Matthew 24:36)

Solomon's greatest treatise on wisdom, Ecclesiastes, is relentlessly focused on time. It is structured to show that our path through life passes through many milestones. The twenty-eight times of Ecclesiastes 3 carry us from birth to peace, achieved if we reach full maturity. For example, the times to weep, laugh, mourn and dance are the teen years, when kids need to learn verbal and physical self control. Then the times to gather, scatter, embrace and refrain are about forming and breaking friendships and finally getting married, while the times to search, give up, keep and throw away are about making good carer decisions and managing your resources well. Chapter 10 speaks of the productive middle years, when a successful person builds their house (either a literal building or a family legacy). It also talks about wise, diversified investments when it says to cast your bread upon the waters. The last few chapters speak of the years of decline and death.

Solomon is teaching us that wisdom is all about knowing the right and wrong time to perform a given task or pursue a goal. His book also tells us that only God is able to plan out history from beginning to end. Only by growing in wisdom, which requires suffering, perseverance, and lots of prayer and study, can we attain a small measure of wisdom about time.

Prophecy is all about time. To properly interpret many prophecies, you need to know the precise years when certain past events occurred so that you can count out the years until some future event shall occur. Some prophecies may count time starting from the date of creation. Thus knowledge of the timescales of the true history of the earth will be necessary to solve these mysteries. God measures out understanding of such matters to very few.

Revelation speaks of a scroll with seven seals. As each seal is opened, plagues and disasters are set to occur. Many have speculated about what the plagues are and when they will occur. There is something more important than that, though. What is on the scroll? It seems that as each seal is cut, new knowledge will be revealed to the church. It is likely that part of that information will be knowledge about what will happen during the time remaining until Christ returns. If this is so, then the ultimate reason that so many people are confused about the age of the earth and related matters is that the Lord has not unlocked that knowledge yet.

Answer 2

If we assume that the Holy Spirit guides Christians in understanding scripture and that Young-Earth Creationism is true, what prevents the Holy Spirit from leading all Christians to interpret the book of Genesis literally?

Nothing. There are a few figurative expressions, but these are for the most part obvious.

If a Christian is deeply connected with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, akin to figures like the Apostle Paul or the Apostle John (which I'm envisioning here as role models), and if they diligently study the Scriptures, seeking the Holy Spirit's guidance, does this inevitably result in a literal interpretation of Genesis?

In respects such as it is meant to be taken literally (which is almost everywhere), yes. It is understood that God is not obligated to reveal everything to us publicly or even in private if we are unworthy, so literalism should not be taken to mean "this is an exhaustive description of every method and mechanism used in the Creation" or other such absurdities. For example, the days of Creation began to be numbered before the Earth was formed and before the Sun was mentioned. How can this be? The Scriptural account raises many questions but answers some concretely. The Scriptures also more than hint at both a spiritual and a physical creation and it might not be imminently clear to the reader which or in what order things are being described in the Bible as we have it. This ambiguity creates pressure for some to invent explanations where the Bible simply does not say. The literality of Scripture including the young age of the Earth do not imply that one simplistic theory that tries to accommodate these verses is necessarily correct and exclusive of all other such theories. There are facts bound and facts unbound or not given in the written revelations. We should graciously accommodate all who are sincerely seeking to understand, and promote the more accurate, faithful reading of Scripture as people become able to bear it. At no point do the Scriptures support Sola Scriptura, because (obviously) there are many things that God could reveal but has chosen not to in certain accounts. As John attests, it would be impossible for man to write down all the things that Jesus did, therefore the view that Scripture does not say definitively what it does not say is far more rational and correct than insisting on a closed canon. God will yet reveal many things about the wonders of creation.

In such a scenario, would rejecting a literal interpretation of Genesis indicate a lack of spirituality from a Young-Earth Creationist standpoint?

Disbelieving God's word where it has been plainly made known clearly demonstrates a deficit in one's faith in God. This is evidenced by the Savior's repeated inquiry when people were confused because manmade sophistries had replaced God's eternal words, asking, "Have they not read the Scriptures?".

Many aspects of the Genesis account are obviously literal:

• Adam and Eve were real, literal people and are our first parents in the flesh upon the Earth
• Eden is an actual, physical place on the Earth
• God spoke with Adam and Eve in the Garden
• The trees and fruit spoken of are real and literal.
• The Flood was obviously global and literal
• The Tower of Babel was literal

What might not be literal:

• Adam's rib

And I'm blanking on what else. I am open to discussion on the subject in chat.

Answer 3

TL;DR: Humans are vain, rebellious and self-centered, and even Christians still struggle with these flaws (and others).

---

If you ask a Christian who denies Creation why they do so, the answer is almost always "because 'science' says...". Creation denial seems to be almost universally based on placing man's word before God's Word. Understanding that is necessary to understanding any potential answer to the Question.

Thus, what we are really asking is why God's Word is subordinated in the hearts and minds of many believers... and to that, you might as well ask why some people deny that God exists, or why any other divide exists in the Church. Hopefully it's obvious that a brief Answer can't hope to fully address such a complicated and profound issue, but we might try to summarize by saying that humans are sinful, and that we don't always listen as perfectly as we should. We also don't like the idea of being accountable, or of being reliant on God. (It may even be that some who are otherwise Christian, or at least believe themselves to be, use Creation-denial as a way of downplaying their reliance and/or accountability, especially if appealing to Common Descent to rationalize some behavior which Scripture calls sinful as "natural".)

There is, of course, tremendous social pressure to deny Genesis and affirm the ungodly and anti-Christian teaching of Common Descent. In addition to the above suggestions, it is natural for vain humans to not wish to be seen as "foolish", or even to think of one's self thusly. (It's worth noting, however, that Scripture explicitly says that the World regards belief as foolish.)

Does this indicate a deficiency in spirituality? I suppose so, but consider a Roman Catholic would say the same about any Christian that denies any number of Roman Catholic teachings. In a sense, every sin could be described as a spiritual deficiency. No human is spiritually perfect.

That said, I would say it is the general belief of ["Young Earth"] Creationists that, if one simply lets Scripture speak without regard to worldly teachings, that the natural conclusion is that Genesis 1-11 is historical. This is further evidenced by the fact that this has been by far the prevailing view of Christians throughout history (and of the Jews before them, including the Apostles; n.b. 2 Peter 3:5-6), particularly before the rise of Uniformitarianism.

---

Aside: Some people deny that Creationism has historical pedigree... but, oddly enough, these same people will usually concede that "six days" and "a few thousand years ago" are the predominant historic positions of the Church. (Disagreements on six days often prefer instantaneous Creation instead. Belief in millions of years is sparse to nonexistent prior to the rise of Uniformitarianism.) Such attacks often focus on changes in understanding such as the origin of fossils or the nature of the Flood, while ignoring the core belief that Genesis is history. It's like arguing that people thousands of years ago denied that wood burns because their beliefs don't explain fire in terms of hydrocarbons and oxygen combining to form water and carbon oxides.

In other words, this is a straw man. These claims focus on the modern, scientific details that have been recently discovered or reexamined in order to ignore the true core of Creationist belief; namely, that Genesis 1-11 records true history, that its timeline is essentially accurate, and that the major events recorded therein actually happened as described.

Others will focus on only the last century or so (that is, after the inception of Uniformitarianism). But this is blatantly "cherry-picking". Protestants are well aware of how belief can start out true but become twisted over time until God acts to restore True belief. The same is happening with Creationism; Uniformitarianism (which has since been thoroughly discredited) was the seed of doubt that has been nurtured these last hundreds of years, and modern "Young Earth" Creationism represents the rejection of these false teachings, just as the Reformation sought not to introduce new teachings, but to "clear the weeds" that had grown up and to restore that which had been known before. (Which is not to say that there weren't others who did seek to use the opportunity to introduce new false teaching or to revive old heresies, much as some fundamentalists will now insist on "flat earth", geocentrism, or other such fictions.)

---

Additional reading:

• Why Don't Many Christian Leaders and Scholars Believe Genesis?
• Where Did the Idea of "Millions of Years" Come From?
• Orthodoxy and Young Earth Creationism