Well, here’s a little item that may have slipped under your radar screen. In a recent news release, Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, and a reporter for American Family Radio News, reported that Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, the flagship seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention, has appointed a Young Earth creationist to be the new director of its Center for Theology and Science. The new director is Dr. Kurt Wise, who recently directed the Center for Origins Research at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, the home of the famous Scopes trial of 1925. Dr Wise is replacing Dr. William Dembski who is a leading intelligent design (ID) proponent.
While this may not be a big deal for many, to someone in the Young Earth creationist camp, this is a huge score. Dr. Wise has a fantastic opportunity to help Southern Baptists, and Christians everywhere move closer to a clear biblical interpretation of the book of Genesis.
OK, wait a minute! Isn’t intelligent design and Young Earth creationism basically the same things? Well, I’m glad you asked, and as a matter of fact, they are not.
Intelligent design is basically (in very, very simplified terms) a concept which states that; since the universe and all things living in it are so complex, they must have had a designer. In other words, they could not have evolved by chance. This is, of course, in direct opposition to the most popular “theory” that is taught as fact in the vast majority of our public education system today. This is the theory, or really the religion, of evolution as was popularized by Charles Darwin.
After hearing this definition, many people would assume that this is a good thing, and in many ways it is a good thing. It does at least suggest that there are possibilities other than millions of years of evolution. However, it does not take the concept far enough. It is really much like riding the fence. While ID does suggest that there may be alternatives, it will not actually suggest what that alternative might be. It will not take a dogmatic stand and say that the creator is the Triune God of the Universe whose name is Jehovah!
Young Earth creationists on the other hand, are so called, because of the stand they take on a literal interpretation of the book of Genesis. Specifically a stand they take on a literal interpretation of the first chapter and even more specifically, a stand they take on a literal interpretation of a single word in that chapter, the word “day.” Young Earth creationists boldly declare that the creator of the universe was the Triune God of the Christian Bible, and that He completed this act of creation in six, literal, twenty-four hour, days, exactly as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, and since this was the case, the world can not be billions, or even millions of years old.
You see, if you properly exegete the text, you can NOT come up with a different conclusion. (You see what I mean about Young Earth creationists being dogmatic?)
Let me explain. The word translated as “day” in the first chapter of Geneses is the Hebrew word “yome.” It is basically a word that means “to be hot” as in the warm hours of the day. Sometimes it is used to mean only a part of a day, and sometimes it means all of a day and even sometimes it is used to indicate an undetermined amount of time; like “back in my father’s day” or “in those days.” But there is always a context, or additional qualifiers that are used that help us understand which one of these meanings is the right one. For example; if “yome” is qualified by the word evening, or morning, or if it is associated with a number or with another word like night, then it always refers to a normal 24 hour day.
So how is the word “yome” used in Genesis chapter 1? Well, you will notice that in each occurrence, the word “yome” or “day” is prefixed with evening, morning and a number, and even occasionally it is used in context with words like night or light or darkness. So without a doubt, the correct translation of the word “yome” in Genesis chapter 1 is a normal, 24 hour day. To paraphrase Ken Ham, one of my creationist heroes, it’s almost like God is saying, it’s a normal 24 hour day, and if you’re a little slow, it’s a normal 24 hour day, and if you’re really dumb, it’s a normal 24 hour day! There’s really no other way to translate it.
The great reformer Martin Luther, when faced with a similar situation said: “When Moses writes that God created heaven and earth and whatever is in them in six days, then let this period continue to have been six days, and do not venture to devise any comment according to which six days were one day. But if you cannot understand how this could have been done in six days, then grant the Holy Spirit the honor of being more learned than you are. For you are to deal with Scripture in such a way that you bear in mind that God Himself says what is written. But since God is speaking, it is not fitting for you wantonly to turn His Word in the direction you wish to go.”
While Luther was faced with men who wished to pervert the word of God to say that God created in a single day, many theologians today are going to the other extreme. They are afraid to take a stand on a correct interpretation of Genesis chapter 1, and are trying to fit millions of years into the Bible. All because science says so! So who do they really believe; these so-called men of science, or the Word of the Living God?
Charles Spurgeon put it like this: “We are invited, brethren, most earnestly to go away from the old-fashioned belief of our forefathers because of the supposed discoveries of science. What is science? The method by which man tries to conceal his ignorance. It should not be so, but so it is. You are not to be dogmatic in theology my brethren, it is wicked; but for scientific men it is the correct thing. You are never to assert anything very strongly; but scientists may boldly assert what they cannot prove, and may demand a faith far more credulous than any we possess. Forsooth, you and I are to take our Bibles and shape and mould our belief according to the ever-shifting teachings of so-called scientific men. What folly is this! Why, the march of science, falsely so-called through the world may be traced by exploded fallacies and abandoned theories. Former explores once adored are now ridiculed; the continual wreckings of false hypothesis is a matter of universal notoriety. You may tell where the learned have encamped by the debris left behind of suppositions and theories as plentiful as broken bottles.”
So why am I dogmatic? Because proper exegesis allows me to be, the text is on my side!
Be in prayer for Dr. Wise and Southern Seminary. They will likely face much opposition in the coming days, not only from evolutionists, but from the Christian community as well.
You can read the news release on Southern Seminary and Dr. Kurt Wise here: http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/102006e.asp
Grace & Peace
Dave Scarbrough
No comments:
Post a Comment