The Dream Solution (How Considering the Method of Revelation may Help us Harmonize Genesis 1 and Current Scientific Understanding)

Something many Christians have struggled with

Many Christians at some point struggle with how to harmonize the creation account in Genesis 1 with the best current scientific understanding of the history of the universe. I’ve struggled with this myself. In this article I want to share an idea which may provide a surprisingly simple and robust answer to this complex issue.

There are no actual contradictions

I trust the Bible as God’s Word. I believe it is entirely true.

I love science and I believe science provides powerful ways for us to learn about the world God has made. Before the Lord called me to serve Him as a pastor, I served as a nuclear engineer in the US Navy for 5 years. At different times I led divisions responsible for chemistry and radiological controls, electrical generation, the steam plant, and the machinery that makes oxygen from seawater and maintains the submarine's atmosphere. Later, I was an assistant teacher for classes in thermodynamics and heat transfer at a college overseas. I’m not a scientist, but I’ve seen science at work and I’ve taught classes based on scientific principles.

I don’t believe that there are any actual contradictions between what the Bible teaches and what we learn from science. However, there can be apparent contradictions. How does that happen?

1. The Bible is perfect, but our understanding of the Bible is not perfect.

2. Likewise, scientific truth is really true, but sometimes even scientists misinterpret data and produce theories with errors in them.

An example where I think most scientists are wrong

Most scientists believe that darwinian processes are sufficient to account for all the life forms we see today, and that similar processes accounted for the appearance of the first life form. I think they’re wrong. I think the molecules-to-man evolutionary story is contrary to both the Bible and to a correct understanding of the scientific evidence. I’ve written several posts on this topic:

Nuclear Submarines and Living Cells

Excited as Both a Science Geek and a God Worshiper (this article is about how the smallest cells give BIG evidence for God)

Theistic Evolution Demagnifies God

Octopi from Outer Space!

I’m convinced that when science is correctly understood it provides strong, deep, broad evidence for a great, wise, powerful Creator.

An example where I think most scientists are probably right

While I don’t think most scientists are right about evolution, I do think they are probably basically right about the age of the earth and of the universe.

In the past, I was a young earth creationist, but a humble one who was never certain about this particular view. However, I’ve come to see many pieces of evidence that fit well with an old earth and old universe.  Here are a few of these:

1. We see events like stars exploding which based on the speed of light appear to have occurred millions of years ago.

2. There is a lot of evidence that the universe is expanding. This expansion together with the size of the observable universe is consistent with the universe being billions of years old.

3. In the past, people wondered how the sun could remain hot for billions of years. We know now that nuclear fusion provides an answer that works very well with stars lasting for billions of years.

4. Some people have wondered how the interior of the earth could stay hot for so long so that volcanoes continue to occasionally erupt. We now know that another nuclear process, radioactive decay, provides an excellent explanation for the earth remaining very hot inside for billions of years.

5. There is a lot of evidence showing that the elements needed to make planets like earth and living things like people are produced in stars through a process called nucleosynthesis. A very specific prediction about a nuclear resonance level needed in order for stars to produce carbon and heavier elements proved to be correct. This process requires billions of years. It’s a strange coincidence that the prediction proved correct if the process has never occurred.

6. The decay of nuclear isotopes in rocks points to an age of the earth on the order of billions of years.

7.  While I don’t believe the fossil record supports evolution, it does point to epochs in the ancient past where many types of animals that are alive today did not exist and many other types of animals, like dinosaurs, did exist.

I’m not saying that all of this absolutely proves an old earth and an old universe, but it’s hard for me to imagine God creating a world where there was so much evidence making it look like it was billions of years old if it really is much, much younger than that.

How does an old earth fit with Genesis 1?

The problem is that the simplest reading of Genesis yields an age of the earth of about 6,000 years. Quite a few possible solutions have been suggested. William Lane Craig has a series of articles which review these different solutions in some depth (you may find part 1 here). In the end, he’s not sure which of these is best, although there are some he thinks are unlikely to be true. While the solution I am going to offer fits broadly into the day-age view, there is a significant piece of the puzzle that I feel has been missing from all these proposals.

To my knowledge, none of the proposals have paid much, if any, attention to the question of what method God may have used to reveal Genesis 1 to its human author. I believe Moses is responsible for the first five books of the Bible, but like many evangelical scholars I believe it is possible that Moses was led to incorporate information that was passed down to him by others concerning events before his lifetime. I’m interested in how God revealed the information in Genesis 1 to whoever first received this revelation, whether it was Adam, Moses, or someone else.

Methods of Revelation

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, (2 Tim 3:16, NIV)

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21, NIV)

Like other evangelical Christians, I believe that every word of the Bible came from God. While it is true to say, for example, that David wrote many of the Psalms, or that Paul wrote Romans, at a deeper level we can say that God is the Author of every word in the Bible. But God did use people to write the Bible. How did God reveal His truth to the people who wrote it?

We often don’t know the precise method the Holy Spirit used to carry along a person whom God was inspiring to write some portion of the Bible. However, there are at least four different broad methods that God sometimes used. Let’s look briefly at each of these methods and consider them with respect to Genesis 1.

1. A report of events and words which the author was an eyewitness to.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. (1 John 1:1)

John, Peter, and Matthew are examples of biblical authors who were eyewitnesses of much that they write about. Of course, the Holy Spirit would have guided their memories and understanding as they wrote. So, in some cases the main method of inspiration was a Holy Spirit guided eyewitness report.

Since no human was alive to observe the events of Genesis 1, this could not be the method of inspiration for this portion of Scripture.

2. A careful investigation of events.

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. (Luke 1:1-2 NIV)

While Luke was an eyewitness to some of the events he reports on in Acts, he was not an eyewitness to the events recorded in his gospel account. It appears that the Holy Spirit guided a process of historical investigation in order to produce the gospel of Luke.

Again, since  no people saw the events recorded in Genesis 1, historical investigation can be safely ruled out as the method God used to inspire the writing of that important chapter.

3. Divine dictation

Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: (Exodus 19:3 NIV)

Occasionally God used a very direct method of inspiring biblical authors. He basically told them exactly what to say. One of the clearest examples of this is Moses receiving instructions from God on Mount Sinai.

I think most people assume that this is the method of revelation God used to inspire Genesis 1. We certainly can’t rule this out. But there is nothing in the text of Genesis which specifically states that God used divine dictation to reveal its contents. There is one more method of revelation we should consider.

4. Supernatural Dreams and Visions

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream. (Daniel 7:1 NIV)

Sometimes God used dreams and visions to inspire the contents of the Bible. Daniel and the book of Revelation are the most famous examples. Could God have given someone like Adam or Moses a dream or visions about how He created the world? Might the author have written down “the substance of his dream” in the first chapter of Genesis?

I can’t find any reason that this mode of revelation is any less likely than divine dictation. The Bible does not explicitly state either one. Both are used in other places in the Bible.

There were a lot of dreams and visions in Genesis

Based on a word search of the CSB, the words “dream” and “vision” occur 40 times in the book of Genesis! In Genesis, God frequently used dreams to speak to people. This doesn’t mean that God used a dream to reveal the content of Genesis 1, but it certainly makes it a reasonable possibility.

A dream with 7 scenes called “days”

It’s interesting that the author of Genesis 1 felt a need to explain what he meant by “the first day”, the “second day”, etc. He says, “there was an evening, and there was a morning, one day.” Wouldn’t that be a good metaphorical description of a dream with seven scenes, each fading into darkness before the next one begins with new light? This could explain how there are days with evenings and mornings even before the scene where the sun is created.

One thing about dreams, including biblical dreams like those in Daniel and the book of Revelation, is that the time element is often very unclear. It may be that in these cases God did not intend to give clear information about the timing of events. Different scenes in dreams may include elements which overlap in time or even are out of order.

The examples from Daniel and Revelation are both complex and controversial, so let’s consider a simple example from the book of Genesis.

God gave Pharaoh two dreams where he saw 4 scenes:

1. In scene one there are seven healthy cows.

2. In scene two, seven gaunt cows eat the seven healthy cows.

3. In scene three, he sees seven plump heads of grain.

4. In scene four, Pharaoh sees seven thin heads of grain eat the seven plump ones.

God reveals to Joseph that the each of the cows represents a year, and each of the heads of grain represents a year. There are 14 cows plus 14 heads of grain, which would seem to point to a total of 28 years. But the dreams are about a period of 14 years, not a period of 28 years. The dreams about the cows and heads of grain occur sequentially in Pharaoh’s sleep, but they refer to two overlapping (in this case, identical) periods of 14 years. Examples from Daniel’s dreams and John’s visions in Revelation are even more complex. Many bible scholars believe there is some amount of chronological overlapping in John’s visions (this is sometimes referred to as recapitulation.)

How this might help harmonize Genesis 1 with an old earth

God could have revealed Genesis 1 to its biblical author by using a dream with seven scenes in it. Each scene accurately shows a sample of God’s creative work. Together, the scenes portray God as being actively and directly responsible for the creation of the earth, everything in the heavens (what we call the universe), and all the different types of life. But perhaps God never intended this supernatural dream to provide information about the timing of these events. So, the different scenes overlap and are not in strict chronological order. Also, a scene may represent God’s work carried out over vast amounts of time.

The author is inspired to call each scene a “day” because that’s a good metaphor for a scene defined by a period of visible work during the light which is preceded and followed by a period of darkness used to separate the scenes.

A weakness, but not a fatal weakness

An obvious weakness to this dream theory is that we are not told that anyone was having a dream. But then, neither are we told that anyone was receiving divine dictation. There could be good literary reasons for not mentioning the method of revelation. If Genesis began by saying something like, “Adam was sleeping one night and had a dream . . .,” that would not be nearly as powerful as “In the beginning, God created . . .” It would also take some of the initial focus off God and put it onto the human author. It’s easy for me to imagine how discussing the method of revelation would have distracted from the main points God wanted to reveal and the feeling and focus He wanted the first chapter of the Bible to have.

It’s only a humbly offered possibility, but it might still be very helpful

We should never treat this idea that Genesis 1 may have been initially revealed in the form of a dream as more than a possibility. There is no explicit proof that this idea is correct. What good is it then?

Some people simply cannot imagine any way that Genesis 1 can be true given their belief that the universe we live in is billions of years old. This lack of understanding about how to harmonize Genesis 1 and science should not cause people to doubt the trustworthiness of the Bible or their Christian faith. Many people recognize this problem, but trust that there is a good solution, even if they don’t know what that solution is. But the problem does cause some people to struggle with doubts about the Bible and about Christianity. What I’ve done here is to try to offer a reasonable way that Genesis 1 can be read as completely true revelation from God while still believing that the scientific account of the origin of the universe, stars, and the earth is basically correct in terms of timing. I think there is a good possibility that this “dream solution” is true, but I’m very open to the possibility that one of the other proposed solutions is correct or that there is a solution that I’ve never heard of or thought of and that we might not understand until Christ returns.

May God fill us with confidence in His Word, the Bible.

Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .

Sexual Abuse in Southern Baptist Churches and Ancient Wisdom from Paul

This past week the Houston Chronicle ran a three-part series on sexual abuse in SBC churches. The series gathered information from public criminal records and then interviewed some of the victims, abusers, law enforcement personnel, and churches. Most of the cases they looked at occurred over the past 20 years. The resulting articles were gut wrenching to read and heart breaking to contemplate.

In addition to the terror of the abuse itself, in a number of cases abusers were able to move to another church and abuse more victims before being caught. Some churches did not do what they could have and should have to prevent abuse or to help victims once the abuse was discovered.

I’m thankful for the articles. Sexual abuse of children is a wide spread problem. When the abusers are pastors or other church leaders, the abuse does double damage. Like any sexual abuse, it deeply harms the souls of the victims. Abuse victims often struggle with many problems for decades, if they find healing at all. In addition to the damage of the sexual abuse, in these cases the crimes also hurt the Name of Christ. Victims, their families and friends, and others often have a much harder time believing in a God who loves them after such abuse. These articles shine a light on this problem and encourage us to think about how to do better.

My Personal Experience with Helping Stop Abuse and Healing those Who have been Hurt

The articles resonated with me on several levels.

About ten years ago my wife, Hope, and I discovered a case of sexual abuse by a top leader at a Christian college. The abuser was eventually fired, but the process of getting to that point was difficult and costly (I’ve shared some of that story in a previous blog post, here.)

Hope and I have also seen God heal and transform some victims of sexual abuse. In one case our role was mainly prayer and encouragement. In another case, we had the opportunity to invest deeply in a young lady who had been a victim of childhood sexual abuse. The healing process occurred over a period of years, not months. At times she broke down and cried like a little child in Hope’s lap. In both cases the healing process was long, difficult, and required great courage and strength from those who had been hurt. The needed courage and strength came from the Lord. Both ladies have been gloriously transformed and each is now a mature Christian leader in two different very challenging ministries. They are my heroes. God allowed us to see both the depth of damage done by sexual abuse as well as His amazing ability to heal and transform people who have been deeply wounded.

What Should We Do?

I’m thankful that as soon as the first article came out, pastors and other Christian leaders were immediately thinking about and discussing what we can do better. Until Jesus comes back, we will not be able to stop all sin. But we are certainly called to do all we can, with God’s strength, to protect the children in our churches.

In this short article I want to share several biblical principles that are relevant to this battle. Of course, specific ways to apply these principles are urgently needed, and thankfully many churches are already implementing these and it’s very likely that the Houston Chronicle articles will prompt new actions at multiple levels.

The biblical principles I will share here are mainly based on a passage written by the Apostle Paul almost 2,000 years ago:

17 The elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.

 18 For the Scripture says: Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain, and the worker is worthy of his wages.

 19 Don't accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses.

 20 Publicly rebuke those who sin, so that the rest will be afraid.

 21 I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing out of favoritism.

 22 Don't be too quick to appoint anyone as an elder, and don't share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. (1 Timothy 5:17-22 CSB17)

Paul’s Holy Spirit inspired ancient wisdom is relevant today. Here are four principles:

1.  Be careful when appointing ministry leaders.

“Don’t be too quick to appoint anyone . . .”

Churches constantly need more leaders. Whether it’s replacing a pastor who has retired or moved to a new assignment, hiring a youth pastor, or finding volunteers to work with youth and children, there is often a sense of urgency in finding new leaders. Those who are serving on search committees or seeking new volunteer workers are often stretched thin themselves. Nevertheless, we must not give in to the temptation to cut corners when it comes to choosing ministry leaders and others who work with our children and youth.

Earlier in 1 Timothy Paul gave qualifications for elders and deacons. The same types of qualifications generally apply to all ministry leaders in the church. The qualifications focus mainly on character issues. These types of issues take time and effort to test and verify. One of the main indications of readiness to lead in the church is that a person is doing a good job and bearing good fruit leading in their own home and family. When hiring someone not personally known to the church, careful efforts are called for, including checking references, in evaluating the character of a potential new pastor or youth pastor. It takes times and energy, but it’s worth it order to protect our churches, and especially our youth and children, from predators.

2. Carefully seek and evaluate evidence when there are accusations.

“Don't accept an accusation against an elder unless . . .”

If there is an accusation against a church leader (or anyone else in the church) it calls for careful investigation. In today’s setting in the US and similar nations where there are good (not perfect, but good) law enforcement agencies, in the case of allegations of the abuse of children it is right and good to immediately report these allegations to the police and/or other law enforcement agencies. A church wouldn’t try to deal with a murderer on their own, neither should we do so with cases of child abuse. The law enforcement agencies have resources and legal powers that churches do not have. And child abuse is a crime which calls not only for removing a guilty person from any church position, but also for putting them in prison in order to protect others in the community.

Does this mean the church has no responsibility of its own to investigate? No. Paul makes it clear that we are competent to judge in areas where the church needs to make decisions (1 Corinthians 4:12-5:5).

Practically speaking, this is how it might work. If there is an allegation or any evidence of child abuse, a church should immediately report it to law enforcement. The church should then fully cooperate with law enforcement and encourage all its members to do so. In some cases, the church may choose to do some amount of investigation in parallel as long as it does not interfere with the law enforcement investigation. The purpose of any investigation by the church is to help the church leadership make decisions, help victims, and protect from future harm. Also, sometimes law enforcement cannot prosecute a person due to legal standards even if common sense standards show the person is guilty. In these cases, a church may need to act on it’s own investigation. After the legal process is done, the church should at least review the parts of the legal investigation which are public record.

We have to remember that there are some cases where the church will have to investigate sin and abuse on their own (or with the help of Christians from outside the local church with experience in this area). For example, if an older, married pastor is accused of having sex with a 19-year-old college student, there might not be any crime in the eyes of the law to investigate. But there would certainly be an urgent need for the church to investigate and make a judgment as to whether the accusation was true. You can imagine many other cases where a law has not been broken that calls for investigation by police, yet very serious sin has been committed by a church leader which calls for investigation by other leaders in the church.

In cases of sexual immorality, how might a church apply the rule that there has to be two or three witnesses (1 Timothy 5:19)? In the case where a young lady at a Christian Bible college I was teaching at told my wife that another leader at the school had asked to sleep with her, we immediately asked her if she thought any of her friends might have had similar problems with this same leader. In that case we were able to find multiple witnesses in less than 24 hours after the first accusation. Other cases might not be as simple. Sexual immorality is usually carried out in secret and abusers often go to great lengths to conceal their sin and keep others from speaking. Still, there will often be corroborating witnesses in the form of other victims, people who saw inappropriate interaction, or electronic evidence like texts or photos on computers or cell phones. In some cases, the abuser may confess to some or all of their crimes.

These cases can be complex and involve many people. Wisdom is needed. Thankfully, our God promises wisdom to those who ask (James 1:5).

3. Publicly rebuke church leaders who have committed sins serious enough to warrant their removal.

“Publicly rebuke those who sin . . .”

This one is tough. Sometimes churches prefer to sweep problems under the carpet and handle things quietly. I think this is why Paul went on to write, “I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing out of favoritism.” It’s as if Paul knew we wouldn’t want to publicly rebuke fallen leaders, so he stopped to make it clear that we have to. And while it’s true that these are the words of the Apostle Paul, it’s also true that this is the Word of God. Our job is to trust and obey.

Remember that public rebuke only applies to church leaders. When your friend or neighbor sins, you are not called to rebuke them publicly. But when does this apply? How do we carry it out? Who do we tell and how much do we tell? Again, we will need Holy Spirit given wisdom to carry this out well. Based on over twenty years of ministry leadership experience, and some painful experience dealing with these types of issues, here are a few of my thoughts:

* If the sin is serious enough to cause a church leader to be fired or to resign, it should be shared with the church.

* Of course, all the ugly details do not need to be shared. Enough should be shared so that the church members will understand the basic nature and seriousness of the sin.

* If the guilty party maintains their innocence in the face of evidence that leaves no reasonable doubt of their guilt, or if they protest that they are being treated unfairly, enough details may need to be shared to establish their guilt and to show the justice of their removal.

* If the abuser seeks employment with another church or ministry, it is proper to share the basic facts in order to protect others from harm. In terms of exactly how to do this, in some cases it may be wise to get legal counsel.

4. Honor good leaders.

“The elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor . . .”

A series like the one in the Houston Chronicle serves a good purpose in drawing attention to a terrible problem. The series concentrated all the cases of sexual abuse by leaders in SBC churches from across the country and from the last couple of decades into one report. It then focused on those cases which were handled in terribly wrong ways by some churches. This type of article reminds us that some Christian leaders are wolves in sheeps’ clothing and so we need to be on guard. It also teaches us how not to deal with sexual abuse through negative examples and pushes us to do better. But we also need to remember the other side of the story.

Before he gives us instructions on how to guard against bad leaders and how to deal with bad ones whose sins are discovered after they have been appointed, Paul exhorts us to honor good leaders.

I’ve known some bad Christian leaders who did a lot of harm to those they were called to serve. But I’ve known many more good Christian pastors and leaders. Most Christian leaders I’ve known are godly people who humbly serve others. They work hard. I’ve known quite a few who made significant financial sacrifices and accepted significantly more humble lifestyles in order to be faithful to God’s calling. Far from being the ones who damage souls, they are constantly ministering God’s love, truth, and grace to people in all of the most difficult situations of life. When church members lose family members, or face severe health problems, or are going through marital conflict, or dealing with depression, or find themselves trapped by a dark addiction, these Christian leaders are there loving, serving, helping, giving, and healing in Jesus’ Name. Most of these Christian leaders are excellent moral examples to follow. Of course, they are not perfect, but their character is such that by their life and teaching they encourage many others to live more godly lives.

So, let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

A Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, we ask that you will bring much good out of the recent articles on sexual abuse in SBC churches. May these articles encourage victims to report abusers to the police and to share their stories when they are ready. May churches be more vigilant in guarding against sexual abuse. When the terrible happens, and sexual abuse occurs in a church, please give those churches the courage, strength, and grace to not cover up it up, but to deal with it in a way that best protects others from future abuse and also best brings healing to the victims.

Lord, please give us a lot of wisdom about the roles that the denomination as a whole, as well as state conventions and local associations, should play in helping to guard against sexual abuse.

Heavenly Father, heal those who have been hurt by evil sexual predators. Surround them with safe people who are called and gifted to bring healing, love, and truth into their wounded hearts. Transform them and use their stories to help guard others. Protect victims from the lie that there was something wrong with them that caused their abuse. Also help them to see that while not all Christian leaders are trustworthy, Jesus Christ is trustworthy.

Bless and strengthen the many good Christian leaders who are humbly serving your people.

In Jesus Name, Amen.

Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .