Is John Piper Reading Genesis 1–2 Through Paul’s Eyes?

So, according to Worthington, Paul is not concerned about when and how God created the world. The implication is that Christians today shouldn’t be concerned about those questions either. I beg to differ and here’s why. At the end of the article, I’ll discuss how this relates to John Piper’s view of Genesis.

To see Genesis 1–2 through Paul’s eyes, we need to look at all that Paul said about the early chapters of Genesis.

First, methodologically, it is not right to figure out how Paul understood Genesis 1–2 and whether or not he was concerned about the when and how of creation by studying only his statements related to Genesis 1–2, and in this case, look at how he applied the text to first-century issues in the church. To see Genesis 1–2 through Paul’s eyes, we need to look at all that Paul said about the early chapters of Genesis. So let’s consider all the relevant verses, including the ones that Worthington didn’t discuss, to see what we should think about the when and how of creation.

Paul’s Thinking Revealed

Paul taught that all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for our learning (2 Timothy 3:16–17). In it, God never lies (Titus 1:2). His words are always true, unlike man’s (Romans 3:4). And he believed everything in the Scriptures (Acts 24:14). He treated the details of Genesis 1–11 as literal history just like he did the details he cites in the rest of Genesis and elsewhere, even where miraculous events happened (e.g., Romans 4:9–22; Galatians 4:22–24; 1 Corinthians 10:1–112).

He taught that all people descended from one man (Acts 17:26), who was Adam, the first man (1 Corinthians 15:45–47). He believed that Adam was made from the earth (dust) first, and then Eve was made from Adam (1 Corinthians 15:47, 11:8–9; 1 Timothy 2:13).

He believed that God created different kinds of creatures to reproduce after their kind from the seed in them (1 Corinthians 15:36–39), just as Genesis 1 teaches.

He warned that Satan would use the same strategy on us that he (in the form of a serpent) used on Eve when he deceived her and led Adam into sin (2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14—he undoubtedly shared John’s understanding that Satan used the serpent: Revelation 12:9).

Most importantly, Paul taught that Adam brought sin and death into the world (Romans 5:12 and 1 Corinthians 15:21–22) and that Jesus, the last Adam, came to undo the damage caused by the first Adam. That rebellion of Adam precipitated God’s judgment on the whole creation. Paul taught that the creation would one day be liberated, just as Christians will be, from all the suffering and corruption at the return of Christ.

And if all that doesn’t help us to see Genesis correctly through Paul’s eyes, he tells us in Romans 1:18–20 that all people are inexcusably guilty for not thanking and worshipping our Creator God. That is because “since the creation of the world” all people have seen the witness of creation to the existence and at least some of the attributes of the Creator (his eternal power and divine nature). This clearly indicates that Paul believed man was there when the heavens and earth were made (days, not billions of years after they were made). Paul clearly had David’s words (1,000 years before Paul) in Psalm 19:1–6 in mind when he said that everyone has heard about God from looking at the heavens, which reveal the glory of God (Romans 10:17–18). He would have remembered the declaration of Psalm 97:6 that the heavens reveal the righteousness of God, at least from the orderly movement of the heavenly bodies, which Paul knew guaranteed God’s faithfulness to Israel (Jeremiah 31:35–37). And as a Pharisaic student of Scripture, Paul would have remembered Job’s declaration about the time of Abraham (about 2,000 years before Paul) that the animals and the earth point to God’s existence and creative work (Job 12:7–10).

We should also remember that Paul was an obedient slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, who also believed Genesis and was a young-earth creationist. Jesus taught that Adam was at the beginning of creation (Mark 10:6, 13:19), not 13.8 billion years after the beginning as old-earth Christians believe, as they follow the secular scientists.3 He linked the global flood of Noah to the global judgment at his second coming (Matthew 24:37–39). He believed that Abel was murdered (Luke 11:50–51). Jesus also taught that Jonah was in the belly of a fish for three days, using that fact to predict his own resurrection (Matthew 12:39–40). He warned his listeners to repent or face judgment, referring to the destruction of Sodom (Matthew 10:15) and to Lot’s wife being turned to salt (Luke 17:28–32). He affirmed the historicity of God feeding the Israelites in the wilderness with manna and of the miracles of Elijah and Elisha (Luke 4:25–27). And he called Nicodemus to repentance and faith as he reminded him about the bronze serpent that Moses raised in the wilderness, as he pointed to his own atoning death on the cross (John 3:14–15).

Paul’s writing and faithfulness to Christ give us strong reasons to conclude that Paul was a young-earth creationist, and so we should be too.

So Paul’s writing and faithfulness to Christ give us strong reasons to conclude that Paul was a young-earth creationist, and so we should be too.

Dr. Worthington’s Comments Considered

In his article on the Desiring God website, Dr. Worthington says many true things about Paul’s use of some of the words in Genesis 1–2 to make application to difficulties in first-century churches. To be clear, those applications are based on Paul’s literal interpretation of those Genesis texts. But Worthington tells us:

Whenever I mention that I explore how Paul interprets and applies Genesis 1–2, I am immediately asked—almost without exception—“What did Paul believe about the ‘days’?” Paul doesn’t tell us. Rather than bogging us down in endless debates, looking at Genesis 1–2 through Paul’s eyes helps us form a more robust understanding of creation and its application to Christians in practical life struggles.

So Christians (like those of us at AiG) who are very concerned about when and how God created are “bogged down in endless debates.” The reason for the debates is that so many Christians (including, apparently, Dr. Worthington) don’t believe the first 11 chapters of Genesis that clearly teach young-earth creation.

Worthington claims to offer a “more robust understanding of creation” by “narrowly focusing on God’s creation through Paul’s eyes.” Actually, as will be shown, he is narrowly focusing on only some of what Paul saw in Genesis, and that’s why Worthington concludes that the when and how of creation is not important. He hopes that his approach to Genesis and Paul will help readers in practical life struggles. But it surely will not help millions of parents who are grieving that their children have rejected their faith because of the teaching of evolution and millions of years and the failure of the church and most parents to teach the children properly how to defend the truth of Genesis 1–11 (not just chapters 1–2).

Worthington quotes Genesis 1:1 and then asks,

Is this a record of God’s first act of creation (with light his second), with “the heavens and the earth” referring to elemental matter or the bare structures of the two realms? Or is 1:1 a summary of all God does in 1:2–31, like a title with its mirrored conclusion in 2:1? This question is debated, but Paul does not help us answer the question.

Actually, Paul does help us indirectly by demonstrating throughout his writings that he took Genesis 1–11 as literal history. And as a faithful Messianic Jew, he undoubtedly took Exodus 20:8–11 literally, which says that God made everything in six literal days and one of the things he made was the earth. But the earth was made in Genesis 1:1, not 1:3. So combining Exodus 20 with Genesis 1, we know that the first act of creation was in 1:1.4

After Worthington quotes Romans 1:19–25, he says, “When Paul looks at creation and thinks about the Creator of everything, he does not debate the age of the earth. Rather, looking through Paul’s eyes, we immediately see the Creator’s own nature and value.” Of course, he doesn’t debate the age of the creation. At the time, there was no debate about this in the church or in the believing Jewish community until the early nineteenth century.5 But also, in this comment, Worthington missed that phrase in verse 20: “since the creation of the world,” even though he had it in italics! This shows that Paul was a young-earth creationist. And this means that, as Worthington says, people have been “morally culpable—without excuse” for not thanking and worshipping God, but that has been true from the sixth literal day of creation.

When Worthington gets to Colossians, he refers to 1:15–16. But he overlooks 1:20 in which Paul tells us that Jesus Christ is the redeemer of all things. This echoes what Paul said about liberating the creation at his second coming (Romans 8:19–23), which is needed because creation is under a curse (Revelation 22:3) because of Adam’s sin.

Worthington rightly notes that in 1 Corinthians 15:37–40 Paul is surely referring to God creating different kinds of plants and animals to reproduce after their kind by the seeds in them. Worthington also picks up on the repetition in Genesis 1: “and God said” (10 times), “and it was so” (7 times), and “according to its kind” (10 times). This repetition is emphatic. The first two phrases point to supernatural, virtually instantaneous creation, just as Psalm 33:6–9 emphasizes. The third phrase does also because Genesis 1 distinguishes between how the first representatives of the created kinds came into existence (by God’s supernatural word) and how all subsequent creatures in those kinds would come into existence (by the natural procreation process that God established). God didn’t speak and then wait millions of years for things to happen. It was not creation by natural processes we observe today, as those who believe in millions of years imagine. But by telling readers that when and how God created should not be a concern to Christians, Worthington has overlooked this. The fact is that these statements by Paul and Moses absolutely rule out the evolution of one kind of creature into a different kind of creature over millions of years, as so many Christians try to accommodate. Worthington also quoted Genesis 1:31 but apparently does not see that “very good” is incompatible with the acceptance of millions of years of natural evil during an imagined creation process.

Furthermore, citing Paul’s discussion about different kinds of flesh and glory, Worthington correctly says, “Paul also sees glory in animals, birds, fish—and, yes, even contemporary (and fallen) humans.” Worthington encourages us to teach our children that God’s creation is good, citing 1 Timothy 4:1–5. True, the creation is good in an important sense (though in context Paul is referring to foods). And Worthington rightly says (referring to Romans 8:19–23), “our personal and global sin and corruption cannot eradicate this beauty and value” of the creation. But the creation is no longer very good as it was before the fall of Adam.

Worthington ends his article by saying that “joy and hope come from reading Genesis 1 through Paul’s eyes.” That’s partially true, but real joy and hope come through the Messiah promised in Genesis 3:15 right after Adam sinned. Jesus came to redeem us from sin and death. That’s what gives us true joy and hope. Worthington rightly says, “We must embrace how damaging and evil and awful and ugly and violent and corrosive humanity’s sin is—including ours—and all the consequences of sin.” But by dismissing the question of when and how God created, Worthington minimizes Paul’s teaching in Romans 8:18–25 that those consequences have affected “the whole creation,” which is in bondage to corruption because of God’s curse at the fall. It is not in bondage because God did a terrible job of creating by using millions of years of natural disasters and death, disease, and suffering of billions of animals.

More could be said about Worthington’s attempt to look through Paul’s eyes to understand Genesis 1–2 and then conclude that when and how God created should not be a concern to Christians today. He didn’t look carefully enough at all Paul said.

Why Did Worthington’s Article Get Published at DesiringGod.org?

It is not surprising that this article appeared on John Piper’s Desiring God website. In 2012, John Piper came on the Christian Leaders Trip, cosponsored by Canyon Ministries and Answers in Genesis. This was a seven-day, raft trip down the Colorado River through Grand Canyon led by two PhD geologists, a Hebrew Old Testament scholar, and me. We showed and explained to the invited Christian leaders and scholars some of the compelling geological, biblical, and historical evidence confirming the Genesis account of a literal six-day creation about 6,000 years ago and the global flood of Noah’s day. Even though Dr. Piper spoke positively about that experience and received a box of books and DVDs right after the trip to facilitate further study, his old-earth thinking (expressed in 2010) about Genesis and the age of the creation is still on the Desiring God website today. There he affirms belief in a literal Adam and fall about 6,000–15,000 years ago, which is biblically and scientifically accurate except for his upper time limit.6 But then he briefly summarizes John Sailhamer’s modified gap theory (which Piper accepts) and says, “So that has the advantage of saying that the earth is billions of years old if it wants to be—whatever science says it is, it is.”

Science doesn’t say anything. It is scientists who say things.

Let’s be clear. The earth doesn’t decide its age. And science doesn’t say anything. It is scientists who say things. And the scientists are not inerrant, contrary to what Piper’s statement implies. We have here a subtle example of undermining the authority of God’s holy and inerrant Word in submission to the authority of the scientific consensus (majority vote), which is controlled by an anti-biblical, naturalistic worldview, as it has been for over 200 years.7 Sadly, Piper is just one of the multitudes of evangelical pastors and Bible scholars who don’t believe Genesis regarding the age of the creation because of “science” falsely so-called.8 We should also be clear that it is not possible with hermeneutical consistency to take the biblical text literally regarding Adam and the fall but then take the texts about the days of creation, the flood, and the age of the creation as less than literal or figurative. Hermeneutical consistency requires us to treat all of Genesis 1–11 as straightforward historical accounts.

Piper also said in the same video clip, “But I could be wrong about that, you know. I’m 63 years old, and I’ve never preached through Genesis yet.” Now, 14 years later, I have not heard if he has done his homework in Genesis yet. I’ve tried a couple of times since the 2012 Grand Canyon trip to engage Piper’s attention to this topic without success. His old-earth position is part of the reason why the Worthington article appeared on Piper’s website, discouraging Christians from being concerned about how and when God created the world.

The clear truth and authority of Genesis 1–11 have been rejected or ignored by much of the church over the last 200 years. And that is the major reason that the once-Christian Western world has rejected the Scriptures and descended into moral insanity and greater rejection of the gospel.9

The age of the creation matters because God’s Word could not be clearer about the days of creation and how long ago they were. The flood was global and catastrophic (thereby producing most of the geological record of rock layers and fossils). And the idea of millions of years of animal disease, death and extinction, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural evils contradicts the Bible’s teaching about the “very good” original creation, the cosmic impact of the fall, and the future redemptive work of Christ. The millions of years idea is ultimately a Satan-inspired assault on the character of God—his wisdom, goodness, omnipotence, and truthfulness.10

We should not follow any pastor or scholar when he directly or indirectly or intentionally or unintentionally undermines the authority of Scripture by accepting the evolutionists’ claim about millions of years and saying that the “when” and “how” of creation should not be a concern. We need to stand boldly under the authority of the Word of God from the very first verse.11