I believe in a literal six 24-hour day creation. I think the creation account given in Genesis is to be read plainly and understood as presented. Generally speaking, the old Synodical Conference Lutherans believed in the literal six 24-hour days of creation.
According to Rev. Jordan Cooper, other American Confessional Lutherans who were not affiliated with the Synodical Conference did not necessarily hold this view. (Cooper, 2018) These were not the followers of Schmucker, or other unorthodox Lutherans in America. He describes them as Confessional Lutherans who believed in the inerrancy of Scripture. They believed that Moses wrote the Torah. They believed that Jesus was a real person, that He was God incarnate, that He was really crucified to death, and that He truly, bodily rose from the dead. These were men like Charles Porterfield Krauth and Henry Jacobs. (Cooper, 2018)
To generalize, the reason these non-Synodical Conference Lutherans held to a more figurative view of creation had to do with how they understood the genre of Genesis. Today the debate over a six-literal-days creationism in Lutheranism is framed more between confessional versus liberal. Rev. Dr. Cooper suggests this probably has to do with the fact that confessional Lutheranism in America today is defined and shaped by the old Synodical Conference, and the synods of which it was comprised, most notably the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. (Cooper, 2018)
Like Dr. Cooper, I also don't like to get involved in this debate because I just can't wrap my brain around it. Maybe this is because I am a life-long member of the LCMS and have been thoroughly indoctrinated into that way of thinking.
Like Dr. Cooper, I also don't like to get involved in this debate because I just can't wrap my brain around it. Maybe this is because I am a life-long member of the LCMS and have been thoroughly indoctrinated into that way of thinking.
If, however, you are willing to believe in an omnipotent God who can create the universe ex nihilo by speaking it into existence, why would you think that He couldn't do so in the time period of six literal 24 hour days? A plain reading of the text would suggest this. We aren't dealing with a poetic or an apocalyptic writing fraught with symbols to be interpreted.
The other choice is that God created the world in a different way than He recorded through Moses in Genesis, but He didn't want to tell us for...reasons.
This seems like the same kind of argument the Jehovah's Witnesses make for their interpretation of Jesus' resurrection. They say that Jesus' body did not rise from the dead. His resurrection was spiritual, they say. He could vanish and walk though closed doors. He could materialize and de-materialize at will, not unlike the angels, manifesting a body when they needed one. When you point out His post-resurrection appearances, they tell you that Jesus made it look like it was His body so that the disciples would believe.
The other choice is that God created the world in a different way than He recorded through Moses in Genesis, but He didn't want to tell us for...reasons.
This seems like the same kind of argument the Jehovah's Witnesses make for their interpretation of Jesus' resurrection. They say that Jesus' body did not rise from the dead. His resurrection was spiritual, they say. He could vanish and walk though closed doors. He could materialize and de-materialize at will, not unlike the angels, manifesting a body when they needed one. When you point out His post-resurrection appearances, they tell you that Jesus made it look like it was His body so that the disciples would believe.
Your word is truth, Lord. I believe this is another instance of men who believe the supernatural working of God in this world to be an impossibility trying to rationalize Scripture. Your word is truth, Lord. With man this is impossible. With God, all things are possible. Even creating the world out of nothing by speaking it into existence over the course of six literal 24-hour days. Even raising the dead.
This is, in fact, the entire hope of the Christian. For if Christ is not raised, we are still in our sins, and our faith is in vain. We are to be pitied more than all other men.
And at the heart of the denial of the six-day creation is the denial of God's word. It is us giving in to the devil's one and only question, the question he asked Eve in the garden. The question he continues to whisper into our ears today: Did God really say...?
If he can get us to deny what God really said, he can get us to separate ourselves from God. And, while I will not say it is impossible to believe in Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world while believing the creation account of Genesis to be figurative, I would caution that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. The end of that road of denying the miracles of God and subordinating God's word to man's rationality is loss of faith. It will ultimately lead to the denial of Christ's propitiatory death for the sins of the world, and His bodily resurrection from the dead. ###
This is, in fact, the entire hope of the Christian. For if Christ is not raised, we are still in our sins, and our faith is in vain. We are to be pitied more than all other men.
And at the heart of the denial of the six-day creation is the denial of God's word. It is us giving in to the devil's one and only question, the question he asked Eve in the garden. The question he continues to whisper into our ears today: Did God really say...?
If he can get us to deny what God really said, he can get us to separate ourselves from God. And, while I will not say it is impossible to believe in Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world while believing the creation account of Genesis to be figurative, I would caution that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. The end of that road of denying the miracles of God and subordinating God's word to man's rationality is loss of faith. It will ultimately lead to the denial of Christ's propitiatory death for the sins of the world, and His bodily resurrection from the dead. ###
References
Cooper, Jordan B. 2018. "Why I don't Get Involved in the Creation Debate." October 17, 2018. YouTube.
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