One Author, One Truth — read from different chairs
All three accounts start with a beginning and a burst of light. They differ on how long, by what means, and above all whether there is an Author behind the Word.
How much time?
Drawn to scale — the universe's age on one line. Young-Earth's ~6,000 years is the thin gold sliver at the far left.
Young-Earth~6,000 years
~6,000 yrs
Old-Earth~13.8 billion years, God-directed
13.8 billion years
Darwinian~13.8 billion years, undirected
13.8 billion years
On this scale, 6,000 years is about 0.00004% of the line.
Young-Earth Creation
Morris · Ham · ICR / Answers in Genesis
The "days"
Six literal 24-hour days, about 6,000 years ago.
The fossil record
Laid down rapidly by Noah's global Flood, not deep time.
How life arose
God created each "kind" directly and complete.
An Author?
Yes — Scripture read plainly; the Word speaks creation into being.
What it guards
Scripture's authority and plain sense.
Old-Earth Creation
Hugh Ross · Reasons to Believe
The "days"
Long ages ("day-age"); an ancient universe and earth.
The fossil record
A real history of life across deep time — God's "second book."
How life arose
God created progressively over the ages; rejects unguided evolution.
An Author?
Yes — the Big Bang is the creation event; "Let there be light."
What it guards
Takes the rocks and stars seriously as God's revelation.
Darwinian Evolution
Mainstream account · undirected
The "days"
No days — 13.8 billion years of natural process.
The fossil record
Common descent over deep time by mutation + selection.
How life arose
Abiogenesis, then evolution — no guiding mind.
An Author?
No designer required. (Evolutionary creation — Collins / BioLogos — keeps the Author and calls evolution God's method.)
The hard question
Where did the information in DNA come from? In all experience, codes come from minds.
Where the family agrees
God created; the universe is his.
Truth is one — Scripture and nature won't finally conflict.
Follow the evidence honestly, wherever it leads.
Disagree like family at the table — not enemies in a field.
"In the beginning was the Word…" The same God who spoke light into being
wrote a language — four letters, G A T C — into every living cell.
A word implies a Speaker. A code implies a Mind.