This is an explanation of how Old Earth Creationism (OEC) can be shown to be more consistent with the Scriptures than Young Earth Creationism (YEC).
The Bible Consistently Shows Us the Importance of Process to the LORD
One of the arguments that is sometimes made by proponents of YEC is that God could do anything and so He could have made the universe to “look old”, even though in actual fact it was only created a few thousand years ago. There is no doubt that God could do anything and He certainly COULD have done it this way. But if we reflect on such an approach, we can see that making the universe look old while the universe was not actually old would not be very consistent with the Story that we find in the Bible. For one thing, it would portray our Creator God as being intentionally deceptive. As well, it would not be consistent with how God is shown working throughout the Scriptures. From the Christian perspective, the Bible is a ultimately a story about Jesus – His creation, His working through history, His death, resurrection, and offering of salvation, with the process resulting in God’s redeemed people living with Him in the new creation (Revelation 21). This Story of Jesus in the Bible is then a story of process. The Israelites had to go through the process of slavery and the exodus to see the power and glory of God. The Israelites wandering in the desert was also a process of learning about God’s holiness and the consequences of unbelief. As Christians, we are usually called to go through the process of growing in sanctification after we believe. The Psalms often speak of waiting on the LORD so that we can go through the process of understanding Him better and growing more deeply in our faith.
Inconsistency of the LORD Bypassing All His Natural Laws
So it would seem quite inconsistent of our Creator God to not use the processes of nature that He had created and then somehow to bypass the natural processes so that the universe would “look old”, that star light or planets or stars would be created to look like they were from events billions of years ago when in fact all of these were created just a few thousand years ago. If all of a sudden God created everything to look like they had been through a process but really had not been through that process, this would be very inconsistent with what God has shown us in the Bible about He works. Such an approach would also bring up numerous theological issues. If God was willing to bypass the processes that He set up in creation, then why couldn’t God also have bypassed the suffering of Christ and then make it just appear that Christ suffered and died? Why would God not then just present us to Himself as His saved people if He chose to bypass the processes of sacrifice and sanctification that He has called us to? Such an approach of bypassing the processes that our God has created is inconsistent with the stories that we read in the Scriptures about how the LORD works.
Old Earth Creationism More Consistent with the Importance of Process in the Bible
On the other hand, the OEC perspective is much more consistent with the Scriptures because it is consistent with God using a process not only for our redemption, but also for the processes of nature that he created. From the OEC perspective, the LORD set up nature to bring us to this point in time where we could hear about the real suffering and sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the cross. The OEC approach also shows the almost unbelievable patience, depth, love, and creativity of our Creator in spending over 13 billion years to prepare for this point in the history of the universe where we can find salvation. After over 13 billion years of preparation, we now have the privilege of hearing about and obeying the One who made everything and then suffered and died for our sins so that we can live with Him in eternity. Although this perspective of billions of years of preparation time has not been a common understanding until recent times, from an OEC perspective the Scriptures coupled with the science of our universe leads us to where our only reasonable response is to bow down and worship in awe before such a magnificently patient Creator and proclaim, “My God, How Great Thou Art!”.