Yes, what you have heard is true! I am a Young Earth Creationist (YEC). And I don’t mean that I am an Earth Creationist under the age of 40. I mean, I believe the earth to be around 6,000 years old. I used to be an Old earth Creationist, trying to duck tape Genesis 1 to the Big Bang, but you would not believe how hard it is to get anything to stick to the Big Bang! It’s like nailing Jell-O to a wall. In a few years, once I pass that middle age, I suppose I shall begin referring to myself as an old young earth creationist (OYEC), but I digress.

One of the best reasons to be a Young Earth Creationist is because God, who made the heavens and the earth, the seas, and all that is in them, is Himself a Young Earth Creationist. I don’t think I am straining logic to suggest that, if anyone would know how long it took to make the heavens and the earth and how long ago it was done, God would know.

But the question is, does God actually tell us?

I would begin with the Genesis account. Many people have the mistaken idea that Moses is the author of the book of Genesis. Certainly he is the person responsible for penning the version we have today, but he is not the author of Genesis in the same way L. Frank Baum is the author of The Wizard of Oz. The difference is that Baum CREATED the content of The Wizard of Oz; he invented the characters and events of those stories. They did not exist in any form until he wrote it. (I hope most of you figured out that the story was fictional when you saw the movie, otherwise you REALLY need to talk to your doctor about changing your prescriptions.)

Moses did not invent anything but compiled the account.

It has been well argued that the text of Genesis gives us clues that its content comes from a series of preexisting texts. Moses authored Genesis the way a biographer would author a biography, and this is not merely my opinion, but a very popular opinion among the scholarship.

According to ChristianAnswers.net,

“The most likely explanation… is that Adam, Noah, Shem, and the others each wrote down an account of the events which occurred in his lifetime, and Moses, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, selected and compiled these, along with his own comments, into the book we now know as Genesis.”

A deeper and more detailed look into Moses’ writing of Genesis is also found at Answers in Genesis, where in they say this;

“We think it very likely that Moses was working with written documents because… (Genesis 5:1) reads this is the book of the generations of Adam where “book” is a translation of the normal Hebrew word meaning a written document. Also, the account of the Flood after…  (Genesis 6:9) reads like a ship’s log.”

So while we don’t argue that Moses’ pen was not a key player in the production of the book we call Genesis, we reasonably argue that Moses didn’t WRITE Genesis but rather edited existing works into Genesis. Though, there is good reason to believe that he didn’t begin this process until he was at least in his 80’s, thus making him an old young Earth Creationist. Perhaps that is where some of the confusion comes from.

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