Piper and Creation

John Divito offered an analysis back on June 2  on Illumination, the blog of the Midwestern Center for Theological Studies, of John Piper's recent comments of the doctrine of creation and scientific dating of the age of the earth.  Piper has indicated that his views are in line with those of Old Testament scholar John Sailhamer.  His comments raise questions about how we are to interpret the creation account in Genesis.  Though Piper upholds many traditional Biblical interpretations (God made the world; Adam was a real person; etc.) he stops short of affirming a literal six day creation.  This taps into another issue relating to "Reformed" theology.  Namely, must one affirm that God created the world "in the space of six days" (as the Westminster Confession and the Second London Baptist Confession affirm) in order to be "Reformed"?

JTR