Evangelical Views On Creation And Evolution

There are several views on creation and evolution among evangelicals.  Evangelicals are those who profess to believe in the authority of Scripture.  There is disagreement about how to interpret Genesis 1-11.  Creation, origins, and evolution are very important issues that deal with the foundational questions.  Evangelical Christians hold to three main views.  There are young earth creationists, old earth creationists, and theistic evolutionists.  

Young earth creationists interpret Genesis 1-11 as literal and historical.  They view the book of Genesis as historical narrative. Young earth creationists view the creation days as literal 24 hour days.  God created the world in 6 actual days.  They believe that the earth is thousands of years old and not millions of years old.  Young earth creationists also view Adam and Eve as actual, historic people.  The Genesis Flood is also viewed as an actual historical event and is seen as being a global flood.  Young earth creationism is the traditional view of the church.   

Next there are old earth creationists.  There are basically three different groups of old earth creationists.  First there are those who hold to the gap theory.  They believe there was a long period of time, millions of years before Genesis 1:3.  They believe a previous earth existed before Genesis 1:3.  This earth was ruled by Lucifer who then rebelled against God.  God then judged this earth with a flood.  Then in Genesis 1:3 and following God created the current earth.  This view was actually taught in the Scofield Reference Bible.  

Second among old earth creationists is historic creationism.  They see a long period of time, millions of years, taking place between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.  After this they believe God created in six literal 24 hour days.  Finally there are those who hold to the day age theory.  They believe the creation days were long periods of time and not literal 24 hour days.  They view the earth as being millions of years old.  All old earth creationists view the earth as being millions of years old and not thousands of years old.  Some view Adam and Eve as actual historical figures and others do not. Some also view the Genesis Flood as global, but others view it as only a local flood.  

Finally there is theistic evolution.  This view accepts the theory of evolution but  believes God guided the process.  They believe we went from molecules to ape-like creatures to human beings.   Theistic evolutionists do not view Genesis 1-11 as literal history but as symbolic.  They believe the earth is millions of years old and the creation days were not literal 24 hour days.   They do not view Adam and Eve as actual historic people and see the Genesis Flood as local and not global.