I was a young-Earth creationist (YEC) before I was a Christian.

I’ll qualify that statement a bit. I became a YEC at age 15, but did not understand the gospel of God’s grace through Jesus Christ until age 19. That is when I came to a clear faith in Christ and began to experience real spiritual growth. The story of how I came to faith in Christ is far more important than how I switched from young-Earth to old-Earth beliefs.

I have written a fair amount about the YEC vs old-Earth creationism (OEC) controversy, and think it is important to tell my story about what led me to switch. This transition had periods of back-and-forth and was spread over several years when I was an undergraduate and graduate student in geology. I will conclude with a few reasons I think stories like mine are important.

My “YEC Proves the Bible” Years

I read my first YEC book in tenth grade and was thoroughly convinced. The book was In Six Days, by C.H. McGowen, M.D., and it contained typical 1970s arguments for a young Earth, including arguments about the vapor canopy, erosion rates, seawater salinity, growth of deltas, the decay of Earth’s magnetic field, human population growth, and the second law of thermodynamics. Some of the arguments in this book have now been abandoned by most YEC scientists. As a fifteen-year-old science nerd, I was persuaded. I subscribed to the monthly “Acts & Facts” newsletter from the Institute for Creation Research (ICR), from which I learned more about the geologic column, fossil record, thrust faults, radiometric dating, Duane Gish debates, and other YEC news. For me, as for many 1970s YECs, the Paluxy River fossil footprints, which included (so they said) both human and dinosaur prints, provided the nail in the old-Earth coffin.

My high school science class that year was Geology, a class I loved. My teacher, Mr Welchlin, had an enthusiasm both for geology and teaching. Towards the end of the year each student had to give an oral presentation about some geological topic, and I chose to do mine on evidence for a young Earth. I don’t remember what grade I got on the presentation, but I got an A in the class.

A few years later I was a geology major at Montana State University. I was not vocal about my YEC beliefs, but I didn’t keep them entirely hidden either. By this time, God had moved in my heart and mind, and I had put my faith in Christ alone for my salvation. I was still convinced that YEC was the only way to read Genesis, and that science pointed convincingly to a young Earth. I had a growing library of YEC materials, including The Genesis Flood by Whitcomb and Morris, and Scientific Creationism, edited by Morris. I remember telling a fellow Christian student in my introductory geology class that everything the professor was saying about Earth history was wrong. My YEC studies hadn’t exactly made me humble.

My Back-And-Forth Years

As I continued my studies, I became increasingly aware of problems with YEC geological arguments about the age of the Earth and origin of the fossil and rock records, but figured those would be solved with further research. I hoped that I would become a YEC scientist like those at ICR, and I remember dreaming that perhaps I would find something like indisputable human artifacts or fossils at the contact between Precambrian and Cambrian rocks in Montana, thus proving YEC to be true.

About my third year at the university, I came across some old-Earth books in the local Christian bookstore. These included Evolution: Nature & Scripture in Conflict? by Pattle Pun, and Science Speaks by Stoner and Newman. The books I read promoted either the gap or day-age interpretation of Genesis. Until this point, I had assumed that all Evangelical Christians were YECs, and the idea that one could affirm the inerrancy and authority of the Bible and believe in an old Earth seemed a bit strange at first. I tentatively considered old-Earth biblical arguments, but did not immediately jump ship. As I completed my undergraduate studies, there were times I leaned toward OEC, and other times when I went back to YEC. The overall YEC-to-OEC process took another three or four years.

Shortly after I started graduate school at Washington State University, I had my final swing to the YEC side, and became a student member of the Creation Research Society. I started receiving their journal, the CRS Quarterly (CRSQ), and looked forward to when I would earn my M.S. degree so I could be a full member of the society. Though I was still open to OEC, I was encouraged toward the YEC side when I read some articles in the CRSQ by Glenn Morton, a petroleum geophysicist. He saw some of the same problems with YEC geology I was seeing and seemed to be seeking answers. I did not know, however, that Glenn was on the verge of going through a deep crisis of faith due to the “YEC or atheism” choice that he was hearing from YEC leaders. Some of the other articles in CRSQ, on the other hand, made me cringe because I recognized they were presenting nonsense. I was clinging to YEC, but also becoming exasperated with YEC.

My OEC Years

By the time I finished my M.S. in Geology in 1988, I was firmly in the old-Earth camp, where I have now been for forty years. What finally pushed me to OEC was not the numerous geological problems I saw with YEC, though that was a secondary factor. Instead, my switch from YEC to OEC was primarily because I came to a point where I realized that most of what YECs had taught me about geology was not even in the Bible. The Bible does not tell us when “In the beginning” occurred, nor does it tell us that most of Earths rocks, fossils, and landscapes were formed as a result of Noah’s flood. If the Bible does not teach YEC geology, and if YEC geology does not work, then why be a YEC?

The problems I saw with YEC geology forty years ago have not been resolved through further research. The geological record is far too deep and complex to squeeze into the YEC flood time line. Volcanic rock provinces, such as the Columbia River Basalt Group or Yellowstone Caldera volcanic rocks, consist of too many individual events to fit into the YEC timeline. The same is true for large igneous intrusions, such as the Sierra Nevada and Idaho batholiths, which are too large and made up of too many individual plutons to have intruded and cooled during a few weeks or months during the flood as YEC models require. Fossil footprints, of everything from millipedes to dinosaurs, are common at many levels of the geologic column, which would require numerous repetitions of flooding then animals walking, over and over. The fossil record is sorted in a way that defies explanation by YEC fossil-sorting mechanisms. Most sedimentary rock layers are not at all like the catastrophic deposits of stratovolcanoes such as Mt St Helens. YEC arguments have, in some cases, become more sophisticated, but not one of them compels me to move back toward YEC.

My biblical reasons for leaving YEC have changed and matured in the past forty years. In terms of biblical interpretation, all OECs need to show is that YEC geology, whether regarding the age of the Earth or the origin of rocks and fossils, is not taught in the Bible either. I don’t claim that I have found mention of millions or billions of years in the Bible, and don’t think it is necessary for OECs to do so. If the Bible does not tell us that Earth was created in about 4000 BC, we don’t have to find verses that say Earth is billions of years old to believe in an ancient Earth. If the Bible does not tell us that the igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock records are largely the result of Noah’s flood, we don’t need to attempt to explain these rocks in terms of that event. I have written a few articles on GeoChristian.com explaining why faithful readers of God’s word don’t need to feel compelled to accept a young Earth, such as Five reasons young-Earth creationism is not biblically necessary and Six theological reasons why Christians do not have to embrace six-day young-Earth creationism.

As I understand my story, there were two causes for my change. The primary impetus for my switch was biblical. I did not become permanently OEC until I became convinced that YEC biblical interpretation goes beyond what is written in Scripture, in Genesis and elsewhere. The Bible was, and remains, the source for my doctrines of creation. I favor the analogical-days interpretation of Genesis 1, which people sometimes think is exclusively OEC, but it is better to say that it is compatible with either a young or ancient universe.

The secondary cause was the serious problems I saw in YEC explanations for Earth’s geology. It was, and still is, common for YECs to say that certain geological features are impossible for old-Earthers to explain that are not difficult to explain at all, and then to insist that the same features are easy for YEC to explain when there are actually serious problems for those explanations, often even within the YEC paradigm.

Why This Matters

I have told my story as I remember and understand it. I suspect that most of us don’t fully comprehend how we got to where we are now, or why we believe what we believe about various theological topics. It has been helpful to me personally to write this out. Our stories are important, and the path is often as important as the end point. Perhaps what I have written will prompt others to give some thought to why they believe what they believe about Genesis and origins.

In origins debates between Christians, I often emphasize that all truth is God’s truth, whether revealed in God’s word or in God’s world. If there appears to be a conflict between what we understand from God’s word and God’s world, then either we misunderstand God’s word, we misunderstand God’s world, or perhaps some of each. If we were to gain a perfect understanding of both Scripture and creation, there would be no conflict. Until then, disagreements are inevitable, and we need to be patient, treating one another with grace and love. This is at the heart of why I write.

One related thing I hope people see in my story is that I am not bitter against YEC. I have YEC friends whom I love and respect. I think they are wrong, and they think I am wrong, but we have unity in Christ despite our differences.

One reason I have written my story is that my OEC beliefs and motivations are sometimes misunderstood or distorted by YECs on the internet. Often this is no more than misunderstandings by YECs who, like me at age 20, couldn’t imagine that anyone would switch from YEC to OEC for biblical reasons. Some YECs, however, are rather belligerent, and are utterly convinced that my motivations were much darker than what I have presented here. I have been accused of listening to men rather than to God, of putting science over Scripture, and of listening to the hissing of the serpent (“Did God really say?”). Some people—and I consider most of them to be Christians despite a bit of rotten fruit displayed in their internet behavior—will read between the lines in my story and conclude I am only fooling myself when I say I prioritize Scripture. I won’t be able to convince them otherwise. One day we will feast together in the kingdom, and our squabbles over days and fossils and radiometric dating won’t matter.

I especially hope my story is helpful to any Christian science students who struggle with the YEC vs OEC controversy. They may have been raised in YEC churches, homes, or schools, and are now starting to see problems with YEC science. Combined with the common YEC teaching that if Earth is millions of years old the Bible is a lie, the bad science that permeates YEC can lead to a crisis of faith. That is not how it ended for me, and I pray that my story will help some walk through the storm with their faith intact and strengthened. I do receive emails and messages thanking me for exactly that.

I am thankful that, by God’s grace, I never experienced a crisis of faith because of the YEC vs OEC debate. I concluded that if there seemed to be a conflict between Genesis and science, the problem was often with YEC interpretations and extrapolations from the Bible, not with the Bible itself. The truthfulness of the Bible, and the hope we have in the gospel, does not depend on the age of the Earth or the origin of geological features in God’s creation.

Grace and Peace,

Kevin Nelstead

My testimony of how I came to faith in Christ

God’s Global Plan of Salvation

A PDF of this article is available here.