Tim Keller, who pastors New York City’s Redeemer Church, recently sat down with “Bonhoeffer” author Eric Metaxas for a conversation on this very topic. Keller, who calls himself an “old world progressive creationist who believes in a literal Adam and Eve,” agreed this debate is not unimportant, but also implied that the issue is not a deal-breaker in terms of salvation. “[It’s] not in the Apostle’s Creed,” he explained, “and therefore there’s wiggle room.”

While Keller does not believe Christians should be obsessed with the issue, he did note that, “[t]he Bible does not teach that the earth is young.” For those who believe the Bible insists the earth is only a few thousand years old, Keller explains that “the genealogies are not complete” (by this, he means that Bible verses stating “so and so begat so and so” do not imply fatherhood, but rather ancestry.)