TWO VIEWS OF TIME: GEOLOGISTS' DEEP TIME VS. DEEP TIME FOR CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISTS

Fundamentalism has become commonplace in American Christianity. Because of the influence of fundamentalism, certain key ideas and key understandings of the way to interpret scripture are prominent in Evangelical and Pentecostal circles and with the general public. While other Christian positions critical of these views exist, the general public often hears the fundamentalist voice.

Fundamentalist Christians have proposed an understanding of time, dispensationalism, which deeply underlies all their thought and is the framework for the divine/human and earth relationship. Based on Biblical interpretation, many believers are convinced that we are at the end of the sixth dispensation, (the premillennial dispensation), after which Christ will return to begin a series of events which will culminate in his 1000 year reign, (the millennium). This predicted reign could have happened at no other time in history, save the present. While predictions of Christ's immanent return and subsequent reign are not unique in Christian thought, dispensationalism locks believers into an understanding of time that rigidly links these events to this time in earth history because of the particular, successive covenants that have occurred within the divine/human relationship. Deep geologic time is commonly a difficult concept to grasp for people newly exposed to the geosciences. However, dispensationalism disallows the magnitude of geologic time because it does not fit easily into particular timeframes of Biblical history.

Many influential fundamentalist seminaries adhere solely to dispensationalism and they are educating some of America's more vocal Christian ministers. Those who teach geology need to understand this fundamentalist position and consider creative ways to counteract it.