Young Earth Creationism

Definition and Meaning

Young earth creationism reads the six days of Genesis 1 as literal days of 24 hours each. On the basis of the genealogies in Genesis, it also holds that the universe and the earth are roughly 6,000 to 10,000 years old. It attributes much of the geological strata and the fossil record to a global catastrophic flood, Noah's Flood, an approach known as "flood geology." This position questions the dating methods of mainstream science, which presuppose an earth billions of years old. It stands in contrast to old earth creationism and theistic evolution, which interpret Genesis differently.

Biblical and Historical Background

Proponents cite the following as their principal grounds:

• Exodus 20:11: "For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth"
• The genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11
• The understanding that death entered the world after the Fall (Romans 5:12)

In the seventeenth century, James Ussher, an archbishop of the Church of Ireland, famously used the genealogies to calculate the date of creation as 4004 BC. When nineteenth-century geology proposed a great age for the earth, many conservative theologians adopted the gap theory or the day-age theory. In the twentieth century, George McCready Price, a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, advocated flood geology. Then, in 1961, John Whitcomb and Henry Morris published The Genesis Flood, which spread this view widely within evangelicalism.

Practice in the Korean Church

In Korea, the Korea Association for Creation Research was founded in 1981. Since then, young earth creationism has been widely promoted under the name creation science through church seminars, Sunday school and young adult programs, and field expeditions, and it tends to be broadly accepted in conservative denominations and churches.

By contrast, progressive denominations such as the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, along with some Christian scientists and theologians, criticize this view, arguing that it overlooks the literary character of Genesis and is inconsistent with scientific evidence. They propose alternatives such as the framework hypothesis or theistic evolution. Proponents counter that the issue is directly tied to upholding the authority of Scripture and biblical inerrancy.

As far as is known, none of Korea's major denominations has defined a specific age of the earth as doctrine at the level of a confession of faith. As a result, views differ even within the same denomination.