A Matter of Days - Framework Hypothesis

Genesis 1 and the Need for a Careful Study of Creation Days

Well, I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter 1. And we're going to read in just a moment verses 1 to 5. But before we read I want to simply bring us up to speed as to where we are and where we've come from over the last several weeks we are in a Apparently very long study of the book of Genesis.

Which we started about eight weeks ago. I've been encouraged by many of you who have come to me and who have said pastor We need this we're thankful for this. We want to hear this and many of you have said don't rush and It is it is often my In like my inclination to rush because I feel like I want to get through so much and I have so much to say that I feel like sometimes I shove too much in and There is not really the opportunity to digest.

So if you look at this sheet, this is on the back of your bulletin. You'll notice there are four theories. We're looking at in regard to the subject of creation and the days of creation and My original plan was to preach all that in one Sunday and Then I thought one that's not fair because I'd keep you here for several hours.

But it also would be too much to take in and then I said well I'll divide it in half and I'll do two one to the other and that didn't work out either because last week I ended up On the gap theory and I did the whole sermon.

I looked down and I'd been preaching for almost an hour and I said, you know what I'll take a stop. Well today I Was in my mind. I was trying to decide and I said, you know what? I'm just going to take these one at a time.

And I'm just going to go slow. And if the sermon shorter today, praise God It might just be a little shorter today because it just be the way it is. But rather than shoving two in and making one long sermon that you might not remember or be able to be Really encouraged by I just I'd rather do a shorter sermon, but fill it with good information.

So that's sort of my process and trying to prepare for these things and just giving you a little hint into that I Want to remind you what we talked about last week before we start this week last week.

We looked at. We began looking at the subject of the creation days. That's the title of the sermon a matter of days. Because as you know the biggest debate among those who believe in creation not Creation versus non-creation, but those who believe in creation the biggest debate is Whether or not the days of Genesis 1 are to be understood as literal 24 hour periods of time or whether they are to be understood as long epics of time or whether they are to be understood in some other way and so.

The Gap Theory and Why It Is an Argument from Silence

That's what this is all about. And last week if you remember Bring my buddy over. We talked about the gap theory and we said the gap theory if you look in your bulletin I just go ahead and remind you what we talked about the gap theory is also known as the ruin and reconstruction Theory and it basically says this between Genesis 1 1 and Genesis 1 2 there is an elapsed period of time the length of which we do not know and The reason why in verse 2 it says the earth was formless and void is Because the earth had undergone the judgment of God because of the fall of Lucifer who would become Satan and the angels who followed Lucifer which would become the demons and This seeks to provide an outlet for why the earth Would have the appearance of an older age and yet the Bible only gives us a few thousand years of time and They say well the reason why the earth looks so old is because it is so old there was just an elapsed period of time which they called the gap and in that gap an amazing thing took place a whole earth was created a whole society was Was was birthed an entire group of people called the angels were living.

Satan fell took a third of the angels with him and that's where angels and demons come from. So as we said last week about the gap theory and if you want to hear more about it go back and listen to the message.

But as we said last week the danger of the gap theory is the danger of reading into the text. Something that is not there because it is argument from silence. Those of you who are who have studied with me and you've you've learned from me.

You understand the difference between exegesis and Isagesis. Exegesis means to read out of the text what is there and Isagesis means to read into the text something that is not there. Exegesis is the right way to study.

We go to the text we pull out of the text. Isagesis is the wrong way to study. We introduce into the text something that's not there and I can't tell you of a better Example of isagesis than the gap theory because it's not there.

It has to be introduced it has to be read in to the text and therefore I would say I Would not accept it as a legitimate answer as to the origins that it tries to maintain. So that's a rehashing of last week.

Let's go now to this week and we're going to go Genesis 1 1 to 5. We're going to read it. We're going to stand to read it because we stand to give honor and reverence to God's Word. It also allows us to to prepare our hearts to hear the word preached.

Genesis chapter 1. Beginning at verse 1 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters and God said let there be light and There was light.

And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day. And the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning the first day.

May God add his blessing to the reading and to the hearing of his word as we continue to study together. May he write its eternal truths upon our heart. Amen, you may be seated. So last week we looked at the gap theory.

And I wanted to again remind you I'm not just trying to give you theological lectures for the for the simple point of trying to Fill your minds with useless information. The reason why I'm telling you these things is one they are taught other places.

And therefore if you were to ever go to another church or go to a seminar or some kind of event that was teaching Creation you might hear these things and it's good that you be be taught these things here.

Because I feel like it is incumbent upon us as the elders to teach you the truth. And and and that sometimes is part of teaching the truth is exposing error. And it's also important that you know these things because theology matters as we've said so many times.

You need to know the truth and you need to be able to proclaim the truth and you need to be able to distinguish right? from wrong and. So that's my job Is to try to teach you what the Bible says and what it doesn't say.

That's the job of our elders. We We are very serious and we take our role in this church very serious in the teaching of the word. So today we're going to look at something called the framework hypothesis and In your notes you you can read Sort of what it says, but I'm not going to use that.

I'm going to use my notes and but later you can go back to those notes in the bulletin and you can use that as a refresher and a reminder. The framework hypothesis is based on the idea That the opening chapter of Genesis is not intended to communicate time or sequence of events.

The Framework Hypothesis as a Literary Construction

But rather it is a literary construction Intended to communicate the idea that God created the world, but not really how. And especially not when he created the world and Much of the system is Based on a theologian by the name of dr. Meredith Klein.

You say well, why even bring him up? Dr. Meredith Klein was one of the leading professors and teachers at Westminster Seminary. Meaning he had influence over an entire generation of theologians in the Presbyterian Denomination and other denominations that would send their pastors to Westminster for training.

Even though Westminster trains primarily Presbyterian theologically there were many others who were going to him for this training. And so if I tell you that Meredith Klein had influence over a generation, I am NOT Exaggerating.

I'll tell you how far wide how far and wide his His His influence. I once heard dr. R. C. Sproul one of my favorite teachers and mentors in the faith say that he once considered the framework hypothesis as a viable option for understanding Genesis.

This is one of the greatest teachers I've ever heard but that shows you the level of Influence that the framework hypothesis has had. So you said well, what is it? You've already told us he says that the book of Genesis does not the first chapter of Genesis is not intended to communicate Time and sequence.

Well, how do you how does he understand it? Well, I I don't know if you remember this but a few weeks ago. I showed you how in Genesis There is a structure in Days one through six that is easily recognizable if you just understand as You read that things go together.

So I want to give you this structure again. You'll remember There are how many creation days six. Who said if you say seven seven is the Sabbath? Well Seven doesn't count. We'll talk about that in a minute.

And I know over here you probably can't see as well. It's also in red, which makes it hard to see. Where's the blue one? I don't see it. Okay. This is important. So I'm hoping you'll be able to see it, but I don't.

I don't see a blue one. So I'm just going to keep going. So we have days one two and three. That correspond to days four five and six. What happened on day one. God created light and he separated light from darkness, right.

So on day one You have the separation of light and darkness. What happens on day two? There is an expanse of separation of the waters to the the heavens and the waters below. The waters in the heavens become the air and atmosphere and the clouds.

We agree and the waters below become the seas and the the deeps. We're with me so we have air above water below. So that's our we have separation. First light dark separation second air above water below.

JJ hush. He's mine. I can do that. You be quiet. Okay. So we got light and darkness separated air and water separated. What's day three? Day three we have land. It's separated from the water so there is a separation a boundary but on the land is what?

Vegetation put veggies because easier to write. Thank you, all. Right, so now I've got a blue marker we'll separate it from the red. Thank you brother. I appreciate your help. Okay. When it's all over I'll find the one that we were looking for.

Okay, so we have one two three. We understand that's what happens on days one two and three. Now we get to day four. What is created on day four? The Sun the Sun the moon and the stars Are created on day four.

Now can you see a connection here. You have to. Light and darkness are created on day one. Sun moon and stars created on day four. Dr. Klein Makes a very big deal about this. Because he would say Can't have light without a light source.

And he actually a direct quote of his I cannot conceive of light without a luminary. Or rather he says I can't conceive of light apart from luminaries. What are luminaries. Luminaries are the things that bear the light?

So his argument begins here. In fact, I would say 90 of his argument is here that day one and day four are concurrent. Therefore It's not six days of succession. But it is a literary Poetic description of what has happened.

Moving on air and water what happens on day five birds. Birds live where in the air what's that? What else on day five fishes? I'll just write fish. I always heard of five loaves and two fishes, right?

I can't be that wrong. So we have air birds water fish. Okay. Now what happens on day six? Beasts of the land right there and Man, who is also in a sense a land dwelling Creature and The food for both are provided on day six.

So so dr. Klein Established the idea that what you have here is not a succession of six days of creation. But rather what you have is a literary description of creation based on kingdom realms and kingdom rulers.

All right, so we would say The realms are light and darkness the realms are sky above water below the realms are the sea and the land and. Then you have the rulers the rulers of the light and dark or the Sun the moon and the stars the Remember, what is Genesis say?

He made the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to Rule the night right? So so he's saying there's a poetry here. And what it is is it's not trying to describe a succession of events. But what it's trying to describe is the providence of God in creation and What God has given us you can see how people could accept this right because it makes perfect sense from a literary Construction he's saying it's not about time and succession.

It's about two Triads this and this a triad of realms who need rulers and a triad of rulers to Rule the realms and the ultimate ruler, of course is man who's set over it all All right. So that's his that's his argument.

That's his position. That is. The framework hypothesis has nothing to do with days 24 hours. You know, who cares? Millions of years doesn't matter. It's not about time. It's not about logical sequence.

It has nothing to do with chronology. It's a literary poetic structure Designed to remind you that God created everything. What are some of the other arguments that he makes well? Another argument that he makes is That when you get to day seven Day seven is Not given a marking point.

You know that days one through six are giving a marking point. You know what it is there was evening and There was morning first day. There was evening. It was morning second day evening morning third day.

Every day is giving a marking post except one. You know what one that is Seventh day. Never says there was evening and morning the seventh day and so dr. Klein hypothesizes That what that means is the seventh day is not intended to be understood as a day.

But as an understood to be intended as a state God is at rest. So it's not about the day. It's about God's state after creating he's at rest. There's no evening and morning and it's not literal day. So if the seventh day is not literal we shouldn't take any of the rest of the days as literal again.

I'm not saying I believe this. I'm giving you the argument you understand his argument so far is we've got a literary Construction that provides a framework. This is not intended to give time nor sequence.

It's simply to give a framework of understanding of the providence of God in creation. The Sabbath day wasn't literal and since the set and this is his argument not mine since the Sabbath day isn't literal.

We shouldn't take any of the other days as literal. But then there's the coup the the grand argument and this is found in Genesis 2. So I invite you to turn there in Genesis chapter 2. After he talks about blessing the seventh day and making it holy that's verse 3 God resting from the work that he had done we get to verse 4 and he says this.

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day. That the Lord God made the earth and the heavens and right here He would say see there's the word day and we don't think that's literal day.

That's referring to like if I said in my father's day. You know that's talking about a period of time. That's not a literal day. So you'd say well right there it shows you the word day is all kinds of different.

But there's another key here. He says notice it says notice, he says these are the generations of the heavens and the earth and He would ask this question to his students. Is the generations of the heavens and the earth what came before or what came after.

Notice it says these are the generations is that referring to the six days that came before the Seven days that came before or is it referring to what's about to come now if you have an ESV Bible. You'll notice that the ESV Bible has a paragraph marker there indicating that it would seem to tie in to what's coming next.

But you remember that your Bible was not written with paragraphs. Neither was it written with paragraph markers or verses or even any numbers at all, right? Your Bible was written When it was written.

For one line at a time there was no paragraphs there wasn't even really any Exclamation points or anything like no punctuation. It was just lines of words. So we have to make a determination. Is this about what what was just said or this about what's about to be said and here's again I'm making the argument because I at least want to be fair.

He says this notice what comes next. It says in verse 5 there was no bush of the field yet. The land had no small plant of the field had sprung up for the Lord God had not yet caused it to rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground.

So right there he says see if you get to this part, there's no vegetation that takes you back to what? Day three. So so are we going back in time? This is again. Dr. Klein's argument. Are we going back in time to today three now where there's no vegetation and he wrote a book the title of his book was Because it had not rained.

Sounds like an odd book, but if you read right here, this is where he got that from. Because it says there was no rain on The land and this is better finds arguments fairly simple argument. God Uses Natural means To create the world.

This is his argument. This is not my argument again. Listen God uses natural means to create the world such as rain which is necessary for vegetation and since those natural means are necessary. Then we cannot accept this as an absolute chronology of creation.

Because this is unnatural. You see. The argument is simple God has to have that God doesn't have to but he chooses again. I don't want to misquote or miss Misrepresent. Dr. Klein, but his point is simply this God uses natural means and because he's using natural means.

This is unnatural. Therefore. This cannot be understood. Literally. This has to be understood Parabolically. Now that's a big word, but you should all know it because you're all Christians. What is a parable.

A Parable is a story Intended to teach some kind of spiritual principle. Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan. Right. What's the point of the parable of the Good Samaritan? The man asked who is my neighbor?

Jesus tells a story about the Levi going by on the other side and the priest going by on the other side and he said but one man the Samaritan picked up the man helped him and Then he asked the question who was a neighbor to him.

He said the man who helped him. Yeah, well that you go and do likewise, right? So there's a point to the parable. You could go into all kinds of breaking down the parable and tearing apart who the Pharisee was and who the Levite was.

You could do all that. But that's not the that's not how you treat parables. Parables are usually intended to have a main focal point, right? And the main focal point of the parable is the point that you ought not miss.

And so when dr. Klein looks at creation, he says this is a parable. What's the point of the parable? God created the world By his power and providence and we should trust God because he created the world doesn't matter how he did it.

Doesn't matter how long ago it was doesn't matter the direction or cause of all of the events. Genesis 1 is only intended to teach us that God Providentially created the world. Now again, that sounds great, right?

I mean get on board with that and you know what? It eliminates all the problems because now we don't have to worry about all the earth is because Genesis 1 doesn't care. We don't have to worry about all in fossils and dinosaurs.

Genesis 1 doesn't care. It really solves a lot of problems. But let me tell you what sometimes when you fill a hole It's because you dig in another way. I Try to fill a hole and he's getting it from dirt from somewhere else.

And the problem is the hole he's filling. Is making a hole? Elsewhere. So now that I feel like I've been fair and Describing his position. I think I can maybe even if I tried hard enough maybe even convince one or two of you that he was.

Right. That's how I know I've done my job. If I've shown you the position in such a way that it at least sounds like it could be understood and accepted. Because that's what he's done. He's got many thousands of people that believe his position is correct and are teaching it in churches.

In fact, I want to give you how many of you have ever heard of by a logos. By a logos is a is a is a is a when I say Christian I have to put the air quotes up. So forgive me. It is a Christian Evolution Ministry Meaning and you can look it up.

It's by bi o l o g o s biologos .com and Biologos teaches that Darwin was right that the earth and the you as a human being were brought about by the process of evolution and That evolution took you from a single cell To the glorious grandeur person you are today and it was that process that God used now notice they're going to interject God and they say God used the process of Evolution to bring about your current state.

That is a major issue when you said. That's a major problem with scripture. Wouldn't you say? Many of the people that biologos use the framework hypothesis as their understanding of Genesis. You see the whole that happens.

When you start to say that really all you have here is a literary framework. You really don't have a sequence of events. You really don't have a structure of time and chant or time and causation. But what you have rather is simply a literary and even some would say an apologetic Understanding of creation because remember how I talked about a few weeks ago.

How the Egyptians had their own view of creation and the Babylonians had their own view of creation a lot of framework hypothesis. People will say that what it is is Moses isn't really writing about how creation happened, but he's responding to the Egyptians and the Babylonians and the others who had their views of creation and he's just creating a Narrative that says God did it.

So his narrative is simple. You guys believe that that raw the Sun God did it and you guys believe that? That this God over here did it or Baal did it or another God? We believe Jehovah did it and this is how he did it.

But it's not any more true as to how it happened. So dangerous that is. See the serious problem with that. I Want to. I want to read to you. I'm gonna. I've talked enough about dr. Klein. I want to read to you from professor Ted Davis.

This is. He is he is a professor at Messiah College. Obviously a Christian school or at least again Christian school. I Want to read to you what he considers the core tenets of the framework hypothesis, these are the core tenets of this belief number one.

The days in Genesis have nothing to do with historical time. They are literary devices employed by God in order to communicate the story of creation in understandable terms. So right away has nothing to do with time.

Number two. When seen against the cultural and literary context of the ancient Near East. It is clear that Genesis was written to combat the polytheism and pantheism of other creation stories. It was not written to provide a scientifically accurate account of creation.

So what he's saying is it wasn't written to give an accurate account of creation. It was just written to respond to the Egyptians and to the other ancient Near East cultures who had their creation stories.

Number three. Now let's this this is the third this is the only there's only three of them. This one is I think the most profound if you really listen. It is not possible to find a close match Between what is proclaimed in Genesis and the details of natural history.

We should not approach this text with inappropriate expectations. End quote. Do you hear what he's saying? Listen again. It is not possible to find a close match between what is proclaimed in Genesis and the details of natural history.

Basically what he's saying is this if you read Genesis and you read it literally. Like I would. There's no way to match that With what we know is true. Because that's the way he defines natural history.

Natural history is scientific Investigation which has led to the understanding of things like billions of years and all of the different Theories about uniformitarianism and time and change and all these things.

He's basically saying you can't have both they cannot ever exist together. You just have to take one or the other and here's the point. They've made their choice. They have said Science must trump Scripture, I mean ultimately.

I'm not trying to be unfair here. Ultimately and let me just read this. I'll read a quote from Ted Davis the guy I'm Describing. We emphasize that the framework view is simply about the Bible not about science.

The earth and the universe can be as young or old as anyone wishes. They be because the literary form of early Genesis leaves this an open question. The days were probably meant to be understood literally as ordinary days.

But only in the context of a literary form that was not meant to be understood. Literally when taken as a whole. So again, what's the point? Genesis 1 is not literal. In fact, it's not even really. Even figurative in the sense that we might think of as figurative.

It's really parabolic. It's a story. It's a moral story. You should believe God created the world. Why. Because we got a story that says he did. It doesn't really tell us how he did. It doesn't really tell us when he did.

It doesn't really tell us how long it took. Doesn't really tell us the direction or order of the way things went. It's not chronological. It's not cosmological. It doesn't provide a true History. But it should give you hope.

I Quote another man. This is dr. Conrad hires. This is he's from Gustavus Adolphus College another school. And he says this speaking of Genesis 1 he says the verses he said they have the appearance of narrative accounts which purpose.

Whose purpose is to convey information concerning natural history in the life and times of the first humans? Yet the narrative form can be used for a very variety of types of literature from strictly historical narrative to the Quote once upon a time there lived in quote of the fable and the fairy tale.

So basically saying that Genesis yeah, it's narrative because what have I said since since the first day I preached on Genesis. I said, I believe Genesis is narrative because from a literary standpoint.

There is no argument. It is not Poetry it is not wisdom literature. It is narrative. It begins with a prepositional phrase in the beginning God. So you have the where and the who and the why and the what all there at the beginning?

It's telling who did what? God created the heavens in the earth. It's narrative. Now does it have a poetic structure? I do think I think there was poetic structure in the way God made the world. I think there is structure and.

So I I don't have any problem with this except if you say this means it didn't happen the way it said it happened. That's the issue. But again going back. Basically, what he's saying is it's all parable.

You know the danger that is a few years ago I was listening to a Debate With it was between dr. James White and another man who is a part of the Jesus seminars name is John Dominic Crossan. If you've never heard of John Dominic Crossan, he is a very articulate very soft-spoken very kindly old man.

But he's one of the most dangerous heretics in the world. Because in the underneath that veneer of kindness is a man who will tell you that Jesus didn't rise from the grays. He died on the cross and he was buried in a shallow tomb and his bones were dug up and eaten by dogs and John Dominic Crossan still teaches in churches.

I've gotten invitations to come hear him speak here in Jacksonville at churches. But I remember when John Dominic Crossan was talking about the miracles of Jesus. And he talked about the feeding of the five thousand.

And I remember this. I'll never forget this. What he said. He said when I see Jesus feeding five thousand. I don't believe Jesus created fish, and I don't believe Jesus created bread. I Don't believe he multiplied fish, and I don't believe he multiplied bread.

What I believe is that Jesus saw that there were people who had and People who didn't have and Jesus convinced those who had to share. With those who didn't have and what we see is the miracle of sharing.

Now doesn't that sound great? Boy they can. Boy, they can put lipstick on a pig. I mean really that's all it is. It is it's a great socialist miracle. If we can just get this one to share with that one by force I don't talk about that, but the great miracle of socialism get them to share.

But here's what John Dominic Crossan said in that debate. This is what I'll never forget. He said when I read that my mind says to me. That's a parable dummy. I'm never get that phrase. That's a parable dummy, and he said and when I realized that it was a parable I went to other stories, and I saw in those stories the story of Joan and the whale.

That's not true. That's a parable dummy. And then I went over to the story of Jesus on the cross and rising from the grave. And I said that's not true. That's a parable dummy. You see where this idea of Not taking the Bible as the true word of God, but simply as parable can lead.

Because I got to tell you when you give up Genesis especially Genesis 1 2 3. When you give that up over to the idea of the parable or the fairy tale or the moral story. Let me tell you something you've given up too much ground.

You've given up the kingdom so much of the New Testament Is absolutely dependent on what we see in Genesis 1 2 3. As I got to tell you a lot of the framework people they accept evolution. Guess what you get when you get evolution.

You no longer have a historic Adam now on the defense of dr. Klein. Dr. Klein did believe in a historic Adam. So I don't want anybody to think that I'm besmirching him in that way. He maintained orthodoxy in the belief of a historic Adam, but his theories Have allowed for the dangerous interjection of People who would say Adam Was not a historic figure and let me tell you why it matters whether or not Adam was a historic figure.

Because in the New Testament the Bible says Jesus came to undo what Adam did. Adam Sinned against God and he was our representative as the first man who was ever created and the Bible calls Jesus the last Adam.

Why. Because we had the first Adam who came and brought destruction and the last Adam came and brought Redemption from that destruction. That's the point and the danger of an idea like this. Is that it can lead to you believing that Adam was not a real figure and that can take you down a dangerous road of Heresy, I want to begin to close.

I'll tell you a quick very quick note. I You all know I teach Personal protection classes. And one of the things that I teach in those classes is Something called situational awareness. Situational awareness simply stated Means that you when you are out You need to keep your eye on your surroundings and watch for possible dangers.

Because they're all around you and you need to have your mind Focused when you're out that you're keeping an eye you're aware of your situation. The framework hypothesis Opens the door for all kinds of dangers to creep in.

So my spiritual situational awareness would tell me immediately I Have to be careful and not go down that road. I don't go into people. You ask me sometimes. What would you do if you were in a dark alley and some guys attacked you in the self-defense class?

I say well first I don't go down dark alleys. I mean, that's the first thing, you know, I just don't go down dark alleys and that eliminates that whole problem. Framework hypothesis is a dark alley. You go down that road.

It's gonna take you somewhere. You don't want to be Beloved. We have the truth of the Word of God. Let me let me quote John MacArthur. I'll begin to draw. I'll draw to a close with this. John MacArthur said this proponents of the framework hypothesis argue the language and details of general Genesis 1 are unimportant and They are only meant to show the divine providence guided the evolutionary process.