Photosynthesis and an Old Earth

[Jad]

I just did a search and couldn't find a quick and easy explanation on photosynthesis and an old earth. I got asked the question by a YEC, how did plants and stuff survive for such long periods of time without photosynthesis when they were created before the sun appeared on the fourth day/age?

[dayage]

The quick answer is that the sun, moon and stars were created "In the beginning," not on day four. Genesis 1:1 "the heavens and the earth" is a merism meaning the entire universe and all it contains.

Days one, two and four are about the transforming of the atmosphere. Look at Genesis 1:2. This gives us the piont of view, the initial conditions and the subject for what follows.
Subject - is the earth.
Conditions - It (the earth) was formless (no land), dark (no light was reaching its surface), void (no life)
Point of veiw - We are to see everything that happens from the surface of the planet (the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the waters)

In Job 38:4-9 God told Job how these conditions came to be. In Job 38:7 He says that the stars were there (as well as angels) when He laid the foundations of the earth (Job 38:4). In verse 8 He says that the water came forth from within the earth and covered it with an ocean (outgassing). Then in verse nine He says that the darkness was caused by a dense atmosphere (thick clouds).

This is just one of the other creation texts in the Bible that must be integrated with Gen. 1.

Day one God said haya (let be) light. He did not say He bara (created) or asa (made). God uses this word haya only three times in Gen. 1 and each time it has to do with a transforming of the atmosphere. On day one it is the command to thin the thick atmosphere (Job 38:9), so that light could pass through. On day two it is the command to cause an open expanse in the atmosphere. Then on day four it is the command to made the atmosphere transparent.

Notice that the emphasis on day four is the role of the lights, not their creation. Verse 16 is a parenthetical phrase that should probably read "So God had made." Also notice where they are said to be given "In the expanse" of day two. The clouds are the upper boundary for the exspanse (Gen. 1:7). So this can not be about the creation of the lights in the universe (heavens Gen. 1:1).

Let me meantion Ex. 20:11:
With all of this in mind, we should read Exodus 20:11 like this: “For six days the LORD made the heavens (sky) and the earth (dry land), the sea(s), and all that is in them (birds of the sky; land plants, land animals, and man; great and small sea creatures), and rested the seventh day.” In Genesis one sea and seas are interchangeable (Gen. 1:10, 22, 26 & 28). Therefore, the six days of creation are referring only to the transforming of the planet earth and its atmosphere.

Hope this helps.

[Jad]

Thanks so much dayage, I'll forward your post onto my friend who asked the question and get back to you. I thought there was a long and short version hehe. Thanks again for taking the time to explain it to me.

[Jad]

I sent it off a few weeks ago now and am yet to receive a response. That's good news to me.