By Wintery Knight

I think it’s important for American Christians to learn lessons about what happens to religious liberty by looking at what happens to Christians in other times and places when Democrats (secular leftists) take power. This time, let’s look at a story from the UK, which has been on a 30-year-run into far-left socialism. They’ve embraced atheism, feminism, and socialism. Here’s the result.

The UK Daily Mail reports:

A Christian pastor who was arrested after he preached from the Bible said yesterday he had been treated ‘shamefully’.

John Sherwood, 71, was led away in handcuffs, questioned in a police station and held overnight after being accused of making homophobic comments outside Uxbridge Station in west London.

The grandfather claimed he was left bruised after police pulled him from a mini-stepladder he was using and cuffed his hands behind his back.

Police said they had received complaints the man had been making ‘allegedly homophobic comments’ and arrested him under the Public Order Act, which can be used under the vague proviso that someone is using ‘abusive or insulting words’ that cause ‘harm’ to someone else.

[…]Mr Sherwood, a pastor for 35 years, said: ‘I wasn’t making any homophobic comments, I was just defining marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. I was only saying what the Bible says – I wasn’t wanting to hurt anyone or cause offence.

‘I was doing what my job description says, which is to preach the gospel in open air as well as in a church building.

‘When the police approached me, I explained that I was exercising my religious liberty and my conscience. I was forcibly pulled down from the steps and suffered some injury to my wrist and to my elbow. I do believe I was treated shamefully. It should never have happened.’

Mr Sherwood, who preaches at an independent evangelical church in north London, was arrested under the Public Order Act for allegedly causing alarm or distress.

Before we go too far, let’s just settle the question of what Bible-believing Christians should believe about the definition of marriage.

Matthew 19:1-6:

1 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.

2 And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?”

4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,

5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

To be a Christian, minimally, is to be a follower of Jesus Christ. That means that we accept what Jesus teaches, on whatever he teaches about. We don’t overturn the teachings of Jesus in order to make people who are rebelling against God feel better about their rebellion. It is central to the Christian worldview that Christians care more about what God thinks of them than what non-Christians think of them. In fact, Christians are supposed to be willing to endure suffering rather than side with non-Christians against God’s authority.

Matt Walsh had a fine article about this issue.

He said:

As Christians, our goal is not to avoid being like the big bad “other Christians,” but to strive to be like Christ Himself. This is one of the advantages to having an Incarnate God. He went around acting and speaking and teaching and generally functioning in our realm, thereby giving us a model to follow. This is the model of a loving and merciful man, and also a man of perfect virtue who fought against the forces of evil, condemned sin, defended his Father in Heaven with sometimes violent force, spoke truth, and eventually laid down His life for those He loved (which would be all of us).

[…]This is what it means to believe in Christ. Not just to believe that He existed, but to believe that Christ is Truth itself, and that everything He said and did was totally and absolutely and irreversibly true forever and always. Many Christians today — not only the ones in the video, but millions alongside them — seem to think we can rightly claim to have “faith” in Jesus or a “relationship” with Him while still categorically denying much of His Word. This is a ridiculous proposition. We can’t declare, in one breath, that Christ is Lord, and in the next suggest that maybe God got it wrong on this or that point. Well, we can make that declaration, but we expose our belief as fraudulent and self-serving. We worship a God we either invented in our heads, which is a false idol, or a God who is fallible, which is a false idol.

If you really accept Jesus as God, then you can’t think he is wrong when he explains what marriage is. Period. End of issue. And yet today, so many church-attending Christians are anxious to change the definition of marriage so that non-Christians will like them.

Why are some church-attending Christians so progressive?

So, I have quite a few evangelical Christian acquaintances who think they are Christians because they got married, had kids, and attend church. You know. They’re “Christians” culturally. But instead of thinking about what policies are supported by the Bible, all their policy-deciding is done for them by NPR, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, etc. That’s because they want to appear “smart” to non-Christians. And having to read books on your own by people like Thomas Sowell (economics), Heather Mac Donald (crime), Douglas Murray (immigration), John Lott (self-defense), Christopher Kaczor (abortion), Ryan T. Anderson (marriage), etc. is just TOO MUCH WORK. Reading is hard. It makes churchy Christians feel bad. Much better to watch Star Wars / Ellen and read fantasy/romance novels and buy video games/handbags.

The point of having political views, they say, is to look smart and good to others. Not to promote policies that are consistent with the Bible, or that allow Christians to act consistently with the Bible. So you get church-attending Christians voting against the small government, free speech, religious liberty, the rule of law, private property, school choice, etc. because forming beliefs by consuming secular left radio and TV is easier than reading.

 

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Original Blog Source: https://cutt.ly/dbYqTMe

 

By Mia Langford

The “omnis” of theology – omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, etc. – are under increasing attack, and not just from what are recognized as more theologically liberal camps of Christianity. Examples abound – even from within evangelicalism — of various attributes of God being seemingly “picked off” by scholarly fire, or compromised among the laity to the point the meaning of the term is lost, and along with it, the force that would inspire worship and awe.

What is at the root of this “fading away” of a traditional understanding of God? It’s almost as if a lynch pin has been removed that kept these attributes anchored in place.

On this week’s episode of Why Do You Believe? Dr. Richard Howe gives name to that lynch pin: classical theism.

Classical Theism

Classical theism is a theology of God emphasizing His simplicity. The term classical here means grounded along the contours and categories of Western thinking arising from the ancient Greeks, the Christian church fathers, and subsequently the medieval Scholastics.

Under this framework, God is pure actuality, or infinite, unchanging existence, and not a being composed of metaphysical parts like everything in the created order (e.g. angels are composed of form and existence, human beings are composed of form, matter, and existence, etc.).

All God’s attributes, such as the “omnis,” immutability, and more, follow from this metaphysical principle of simplicity (attribute being a characteristic of God’s nature or His actions that can be known from creation [general revelation] and from His word [special revelation]). God’s attributes are entailed and connected in such a way as to imply and support one another, and if one attribute is removed or altered, the others collapse as well.

In other words, the ostensible individuation of God’s attributes is really the attempt of our finite human understanding to break God’s magnitude and majesty into digestible bites, and when we tamper with the cornerstone of divine simplicity, or any individual attribute, the entire house shakes.

Who Pulled the Pin?

So, if simplicity is the grounding for the various attributes of God, why has simplicity largely fallen by the wayside in modernity? Dr. Howe credits this discard largely to a lack of skill in hermeneutics. He demonstrates in this episode that a compromised and erroneous view of the nature and attributes of God will follow the discard of this cherished and enduring principle of theology, which followed an inconsistent and inappropriate interpretation of the text. Where classical theism honors God as being in a class by himself as a necessary and simple being, other systems can often impose human, finite, and compromised characteristics onto God.

Recommended resources related to the topic:

What is God Really Like? A View from the Parables by Dr. Frank Turek (DVD, Mp3, and Mp4)

What is God Like? Look to the Heavens by Dr. Frank Turek (DVD and Mp4

How Philosophy Can Help Your Theology by Richard Howe (DVD Set, Mp3, and Mp4)   

Debate: Does God Exist? Turek vs. Hitchens (DVD), (mp4 Download) (MP3)

 

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Original Blog Source: https://cutt.ly/DbTL2e7

 

By Bob Perry

History shows that prudence and wisdom are rarely on the side of new ways of looking at Scripture. This is especially true of the “progressive” bent toward remaking Jesus in a postmodern image. So, when I first heard about Tom Gilson’s new book, Too Good To Be False, I have to admit I was confused. Gilson is a solid Christian thinker. But the back cover of his book told me that “Christians reading [it] will encounter Jesus in fresh, worshipful new ways.” Had he gone to the dark side? Ten pages in my fears were allayed. It turns out Jesus’ story can still surprise you. Gilson’s book is not a new interpretation of Jesus. It’s a challenge to see ancient words with fresh eyes. And the picture he paints is astonishing.

Would You Hire This Guy?

Imagine receiving a memo from someone you work with. Its purpose is to introduce an individual he wants you to consider for a job opening you have in your office. In the memo, he describes the candidate as someone who never learns from experience, certainly not from his own mistakes. In fact, he’s never admitted to making a mistake. His leadership skills haven’t improved in the least. He shows no sign of character growth. When you ask him questions, he rarely gives you a straight answer. In his view, you can disagree with him, but that would just make you wrong. And he commands those who work with him to do things his way without exception (51-52).

Would you hire him? Or would you ask yourself, “Who does this guy think he is?”

That’s Jesus as you’ve probably never thought of him before.

Fall On Your Face

The insights in Too Good To Be False are not based on rethinking Jesus’ doctrines or deity. Quite the opposite. They are reminders that we are too used to the populist Jesus we’ve all been encouraged to befriend. When you focus on what he actually said and did, there is no temptation to punch Jesus in the shoulder and laugh. Instead, you are overwhelmed with the urge to fall down on your face and worship him. Yet, he invites you into his circle of trust anyway.

The real Jesus is a leader unlike any the world has ever seen. He speaks and acts with authority, confidence, and power. But he never misuses that power. He never even uses it to his own advantage. Instead, he directs that power toward loving others. He commands respect. And he is always the smartest person in the room.

The combination of these character traits describes a man who cannot be of this world. He’s unlike anyone any of us has ever met or even heard about. And while it’s tempting to say that makes him too good to be true, history tells us differently. The facts are more compelling. They make him too good to be false.

A Novel Character

Jesus’ persona is so outrageously superior it demands an explanation. After all, he’s the most memorable character ever created. And that could make it tempting to write him off as the invention of someone’s very fertile imagination. But you don’t have that option. Dismissing the Jesus of the Gospels that way would be tantamount to subscribing to the most outrageous conspiracy theory in human history. A coordinated forgery made by multiple authors all possessed of the same fanciful delusion. But it’s even worse than that.

To hear the skeptics tell it, this Jesus story is some grand version of the Telephone Game. It got invented, embellished, retold, and passed down through multiple storytellers in various locations. Yet, somehow, the legendary character this process created turns out to be exactly the same guy everywhere we look. He lives in all four Gospels (five if you join the ones who invoke ‘Q’). Somehow, this scrambled mess “produced a greater miracle than the resurrection: the greatest story of all time, with the greatest character in all literature, presenting moral teaching that’s changed every civilization it’s touched for the better.” (133)

Quite a miracle indeed.

Confronting The Skeptics

The usual skeptics won’t take this lying down, of course. But Tom Gilson has been engaging them and their ideas on his Thinking Christian blog since 2004. He’s heard all of their arguments hundreds of times. So, when it comes to handling objections to his thesis, he does so with style, grace, and simplicity. They’re all there — Dawkins, Spong, Aslan, Ehrman, Carrier, Price, Armstrong, Hitchens, and others — and Gilson acknowledges their points. But instead of trying to cut down each tree, he focuses on the forest. Jesus of Nazareth is a character no one could make up.

There are ways to respond to the details of the so-called Gospel “contradictions.” But some skeptics just refuse to recognize them as simple differences in point-of-view. It’s tempting to feel compelled to explain why Jesus didn’t talk about today’s hot-button moral and social issues. They don’t care that, throughout history, the solution to every moral dilemma has come through the actions of Jesus’ followers. We’ve heard the bluster about how Jesus “became God” (Ehrman) or how he was simply another rehashed legend (Dawkins, Armstrong). We’ve even been told that he didn’t really exist at all (Carrier). None of these gets to the heart of the problem.

With all the corruption and shenanigans entailed in passing down a made-up legend, how could the Synoptic authors have pulled it off? How could they have each arrived at the same God-man Jesus when the Telephone Game hadn’t had time to invent his deity before they wrote their Gospels?

The Jesus We Take For Granted

Jesus was a media influencer before it was cool. But what made him popular with those who knew him best also made him notorious with the political and religious leaders of his day. Nobody likes a guy who thinks he’s God incarnate. People like that need to be eliminated. But when those same people reappear shortly thereafter, those who tried to eliminate them know they’ve got a real problem on their hands.

It’s only happened once.

Today, the most vehement opponents of Christianity still invoke his name. They do so to try to expose the “hypocrisy” of modern Christians. But when they do, they’re making Tom Gilson’s point. Even they admire the one character in human history who “no author, no poet and no playwright has ever devised … a character of perfect power and perfect love like Jesus” (126).

He is the standard by which every other character is measured. Too loving to be a liar. Too compelling to be a lunatic. He only leaves us one choice. And Too Good To Be False reminds us that it is a choice we have too often taken for granted.

Recommended resources related to the topic:

How Can Jesus be the Only Way? (mp4 Download) by Frank Turek

Jesus, You and the Essentials of Christianity – Episode 14 Video DOWNLOAD by Frank Turek (DVD)

So the Next Generation will Know by J. Warner Wallace (Book and Participant’s Guide)

 

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Bob Perry is a Christian apologetics writer, teacher, and speaker who blogs about Christianity and the culture at truehorizon.org. He is a Contributing Writer for the Christian Research Journal and has also been published in Touchstone, and Salvo. Bob is a professional aviator with 37 years of military and commercial flying experience. He has a B.S., Aerospace Engineering from the U. S. Naval Academy, and an M.A., Christian Apologetics from Biola University. He has been married to his high school sweetheart since 1985. They have five grown sons.

Original Blog Source: https://cutt.ly/4bjhZWK

 

By Al Serrato

Many years ago, when I was younger and much less wise, I decided it would be a good father-son project to invest in an older car that I could restore. (Note to fathers: it’s a much better bonding idea to find something your kids like than the other way around). So, after some searching, and mindful of my meager budget, I ended up finding an ’87 Mustang convertible that was in pretty good shape overall. It wasn’t difficult for me to envision that with a little elbow grease, and a website that specializes in Mustang parts, I could make this car showroom quality in no time.

After the novelty wore off, and my kids’ interest waned from little to none, I found that I had a solitary project on my hands that had this very annoying habit of making negative progress. That’s right. No matter how many items I crossed off the to-do list, more kept getting added. And I found that things always went from good to bad, from working to broken, from clean to dirty. Window switches that were working one day stopped working the next. Motors that keep the windows moving smoothly up and down began to groan and then stopped. Fuses blew, over and over again. Amazingly, the process never worked the other way. No matter how long I waited, broken switches never fixed themselves. Cracked pieces of trim, or a broken taillight, never repaired themselves. Rust in the metal always appeared, where it wasn’t before, and never gave way to clean and shiny metal. Yes, the law of entropy was fully in effect, and the only way to reverse that process was to invest time, energy, and money.

This of course comes as no surprise to anyone who has ever owned anything. Nor is it a surprise to anyone who has considered the way nature operates. Scientists tell us that this law – entropy – is a characteristic of the universe. Entropy is, put simply, a measure of disorder, and it seems that a universal law is in operation moving everything from states of higher to states of lower order. In other words, nature has a particular direction to it, and that direction is down.

Christianity and atheism are competing worldviews. Each one claims to be able to make sense of the world so as to explain the way things really are. And despite the increasing popularity of atheism, and the increasing disdain for historic Christianity, the atheistic worldview is utterly incapable of making sense of the world. As it relates to entropy, atheism must explain why it is that the “evolution” of life has escaped this universal law. How is it that incredibly complex human beings evolved from lower life forms? When DNA is subjected to random change, the result is often lethal – it’s called cancer. But somehow, atheists insist, given enough time, a simple single-celled life form acquired the instructions necessary to produce a complete human life, instructions that must perfectly direct the assembly and interworking of dozens of systems. And if that were not hard enough, how can life have emerged from inert – lifeless – material? Leave a rock alone for a few millennia and you end up with, well, a rock.

The Christian worldview, by contrast, can provide that explanation. The Big Bang event that started this downward slide in progress is the result of a massively powerful and immensely intelligent being, who provided the laws we see in nature, and who wrote the instructions that scientists are beginning to decipher within DNA. The reason life “evolved” on earth is because an Intelligent Designer designed it to and provided the energy source to power the process. Recognizing the need for such a “first cause” is not unscientific. Indeed, modern science began with the presupposition that intelligent minds could untangle the mysteries of nature because these mysteries were not random but were themselves the product of an ordered mind, of intelligence.

Fighting the obvious, as atheists do, is even less successful than fighting entropy. They would be better off using their time in more productive pursuits.

Recommended resources related to the topic:

I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Paperback), and (Sermon) by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek 

Stealing From God by Dr. Frank Turek (Book)

 

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Al Serrato earned his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1985. He began his career as an FBI special agent before becoming a prosecutor in California, where he continues to work. An introduction to CS Lewis’ works sparked his interest in Apologetics, which he has pursued for the past three decades. He got his start writing Apologetics with J. Warner Wallace and Pleaseconvinceme.com.

 

By Ryan Leasure

Modern critics doubt that eyewitnesses stand behind the four Gospels. In fact, they argue that the first followers of Jesus told others about Jesus who told others about Jesus who told others about Jesus, and eventually someone wrote all those stories down—much like the game of telephone. According to this theory, anonymous figures wrote the Gospels in places like Turkey, Greece, and Rome.

Biblical scholar Richard Bauckham begs to differ. One of the more brilliant ways Bauckham pushed back against the form criticism of the early twentieth century was to highlight that the names in the Gospels correspond to the names in the broader Palestinian record. In other words, one would expect a slew of unrealistic Palestinian names (like Marcus or Gaius) if someone was merely writing hearsay from across the Roman Empire. This point is especially true when one considers that the Jewish names across the Empire were radically different from the Palestinian Jewish names. The fact that the Gospels give realistic names suggests that the accounts can be traced back to Palestine itself.

But Bauckham also looks at the names from a different angle to provide further support for eyewitness testimony. He argues that the presence of certain names seems highly unusual unless they were the eyewitness sources behind their stories.

Anonymous by Default

Most of the people in the Gospels are anonymous. Besides the disciples, government officials, and a few key figures, just about everyone else remains anonymous. Allow me to give you some samples from Luke:

  • Luke 5:12 — “While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy.”
  • Luke 6:6 — “On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered.”
  • Luke 7:2 — “Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him.”
  • Luke 8:43 — “And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.”
  • Luke 10:25 — “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’”
  • Luke 13:14 — “But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, ‘There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.’”

I could list more. By my count fifty-one anonymous characters appear in Luke. This does not count large groups such as the five thousand or the seventy-two. Nor does this list include generic statements where Jesus heals “many” or interacts with a crowd.

Since obscure characters are usually anonymous, we should take notice when one of them gets mentioned.

Simon of Cyrene

Mark mentions three obscure figures in Mark 15:21. He notes, “And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.” It’s noteworthy that none of these three figures show up anywhere else in the narrative. Moreover, while Matthew and Luke also mention Simon of Cyrene, they leave out his two sons. What best explains this phenomena?

Church tradition suggests that Mark’s Gospel is more or less Peter’s account of things. Yet, Peter wasn’t in all places at all times. In fact, he drops out of the narrative in the previous chapter. He’s presumably in hiding after Jesus’ arrest. So how would Peter or Mark know that Simon carried Jesus’ cross? Who’s testimony stands behind this story?

It most certainly has to be Simon of Cyrene. Furthermore, the mention of his two sons Alexander and Rufus suggests that Mark expected his readers to know who they were. In fact, if Mark wrote his Gospel in Rome (as tradition suggests), it’s reasonable to believe that the church heard this story from Alexander and Rufus themselves. Think about it. Alexander and Rufus must have heard the story dozens of times from their dad. And now as they relayed this same story to the church in Rome, imagine how proud they must have felt. That’s our dad! He carried Jesus’ cross! Since neither Matthew nor Luke mention these two sons, we can assume that their audiences (places other than Rome) would not have been familiar with them.

Cleopas

After his resurrection from the dead, Jesus appears to two individuals on the road to Emmaus — Cleopas and an anonymous figure. Why mention Cleopas and not the other? The story obviously does not require him to be named.

The most reasonable explanation is that Cleopas must be the source for this specific account. Again, none of the disciples were present. Luke himself was not present. But as Luke mentioned in his prologue, he spoke with different eyewitnesses before compiling his Gospel account (Luke 1:1-3). Cleopas was one such eyewitness.

Also worth noting is that Cleopas was probably Jesus’ uncle. Elsewhere, John reports, “but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene” (John 19:25). While the spelling is different in John, Bauckham argues that “Clopas is a very rare Semitic form of the Greek name Cleopas, so rare that we can be certain this is the Clopas who, according to Hegesippus, was the brother of Jesus’ father Joseph.”[1]

Writing in the early fourth century, church historian Eusebius references Hegesippus’ quote on Clopas. He writes:

After the martyrdom of James and the conquest of Jerusalem which immediately followed, it is said that those of the apostles and disciples of the Lord that were still living came together from all directions with those that were related to the Lord according to the flesh (for the majority of them also were still alive) to take counsel as to who was worthy to succeed James. They all with one consent pronounced Symeon, the son of Clopas, of whom the Gospel also makes mention; to be worthy of the episcopal throne of that parish. He was a cousin, as they say, of the Saviour. For Hegesippus records that Clopas was a brother of Joseph.[2]

According to church tradition, Clopas’ son, Symeon, the cousin of Jesus and James, became the overseer of the church in Jerusalem after James’ martyrdom in AD 62. Thus, we can see why Clopas’ testimony might carry some significant weight in the early church. He was the uncle of Jesus, and his son was a prominent leader in the Jerusalem church.

Names and Eyewitnesses

A few other names also fit this same description (Jairus, Bartimaeus, and Zacchaeus to name a few). By looking at the general pattern in the Gospels, these obscure figures should have remained anonymous. Therefore, their names seem rather significant. I believe Bauckham is correct when he suggests “that many of these named characters were eyewitnesses who not only originated the traditions to which their names are attached but also continued to tell these stories as authoritative guarantors of their traditions.”[3]

Notes

[1] Richard Bauckham, Jesus, and the Eyewitnesses, 47.

[2] Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 3.11.

[3] Richard Bauckham, Jesus, and the Eyewitnesses, 39.

Recommended resources related to the topic:

Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels by J. Warner Wallace (Book)

The New Testament: Too Embarrassing to Be False by Frank Turek (MP3) and (DVD)

Why We Know the New Testament Writers Told the Truth by Frank Turek (mp4 Download)

The Top Ten Reasons We Know the NT Writers Told the Truth mp3 by Frank Turek

Counter Culture Christian: Is the Bible True? by Frank Turek (Mp3), (Mp4), and (DVD)      

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Ryan Leasure holds a Master of Arts from Furman University and a Master of Divinity from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Currently, he’s a Doctor of Ministry candidate at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also serves as a pastor at Grace Bible Church in Moore, SC.

Original Blog Source: https://cutt.ly/avG9mjt

 

By Brian Chilton

Regardless of whether an event is recent or of antiquity, the researched event holds greater historical probability if it holds a higher number of eyewitnesses. The more eyes on the event, the greater chance the historian has in understanding what transpired. When it comes to the resurrection of Jesus, numerous individuals encountered the risen Jesus in a variety of locations and over the course of 40 days (Acts 1:3). The number of witnesses is recorded in an early creed which is accepted by even critical scholars. Even Bart Ehrman, Rudolf Bultmann, and Gerd Ludemann—individuals who are highly skeptical of biblical claims—accept the credibility of the early NT creeds, which includes 1 Corinthians 15:3-9 (Bultmann, NTT, 42; Ehrman, Forged, 92-93; Ludemann, Paulus, 142). The creed of 1 Corinthians 15 represents material that Paul obtained from the early Christian leaders in Jerusalem when he met with them a few years after his conversion. NT scholar Luke Timothy Johnson notes that “the most critical historian can affirm without hesitation. Can anyone doubt, for example … a meeting between Paul and the Jerusalem Church leadership concerning the legitimacy of the gentile mission” (Johnson, Real Jesus, 103)? How many witnesses are listed in the earliest material? Furthermore, is it possible that the groups of individuals listed could have had a hallucination?

The Early Witnesses

Examining the 1 Corinthians 15 creed, the following individuals are listed: Peter, as noted by his Aramaic name Cephas; the twelve disciples; over five hundred believers; James the brother of Jesus; and Paul. Thus far, the number is up to 514. The Gospels note that the women also served as eyewitnesses of the risen Jesus which included Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, Joanna, and other unnamed women (Luke 24:10). This adds at least 5 witnesses. If Mary the mother of Jesus is not the same as Mary the mother of James, one could assuredly add her to the list. If Jesus appeared to James and the other disciples, he certainly would have appeared to his mother also. Thus, an additional person could be added making 6 people added to the running tally equaling 520. Luke also adds Cleopas and another disciple, perhaps his wife, to the list of witnesses when they met Jesus on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:18-35). The additional two witnesses increase the total to 522. Matthew and Luke add two other times when numerous witnesses saw the risen Jesus at the same time. Matthew 28 denotes an occasion where the risen Jesus taught a large crowd in Galilee when he provided the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20) While the eleven disciples are mentioned, the text leaves open the possibility that Jesus communicates to a group as he notes that some among them doubted. In Acts, Luke records the ascension of the risen Jesus which was encountered by a large group that witnessed his ascension from the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem. Given that this was a public event, many others may have seen Jesus. While 521 are specifically identified and the addition of Mary the mother of Jesus making the number 522, it is possible that the NT could refer to over a thousand people witnessing the risen Jesus given the possibility that 1) women may not be included in the 500 number in 1 Corinthians 15, and 2) that large groups of an unidentifiable number witnessed Jesus on separate occasions. Given that Jesus had previously ordained 70 to go out two-by-two, most assuredly they would have seen the risen Jesus as well if they were not included in the previous lists.

Impossibility of the Hallucination Theory to Explain

As noted, the NT provides solid reasons for believing that numerous people witnessed Jesus over a span of 40 days. However, the skeptic will counter by saying that the disciples merely had a hallucination which led them to believe that Jesus had risen. The hallucination theory fails on several accounts.

  1. The disciples do not hold the traits of those who hallucinate. Those who hallucinate are either induced by drugs, have a mental illness, or are deprived. However, none of the disciples exhibited these characteristics.
  2. The empty tomb does not permit the hallucination theory as an acceptable alternative. All that would be necessary would be the presentation of the dead body of Jesus, but this never happened. The tomb was still found empty in Jerusalem.
  3. The resurrection appearances occurred in different places and by different means (e.g., some occurred indoors while others occurred outdoors, some occurred while standing while others appeared while seated). The disciples would not be in the proper frame of mind for a mass hallucination.
  4. Hallucinations do not normally stop suddenly. Yet the resurrection appearances stopped after 40 days.
  5. The disciples were not anticipating a resurrection event. Thus, the hallucination would have made no sense to the disciples.
  6. Some of the disciples physically touched Jesus (Luke 24:38-40; John 20:24-25) which debunks the possibility of a hallucination.
  7. Hallucinations are individualized events that occur internally and cannot occur in groups. Illusions can occur in groups, hallucinations cannot.
  8. Hallucinations do not account for the enemies of Jesus (i.e., James and John) becoming disciples. If they were hallucinating, they would not have been transformed by the experience. Additionally, the empty tomb would have further debunked the experience.
  9. Hallucinations are relatively rare. As such, they cannot account for the numerous individuals who had the experiences.
  10. Even with people who have drug-induced hallucinations, the person can normally tell that a hallucination is a falsified event compared to items known to be real.

Conclusion

The numerous eyewitnesses of the risen Jesus cannot be attributed to hallucinations or even the development of legendary material. It is believed that the early creeds, including 1 Corinthians 15:3-9 could date to as early as a few months after the resurrection of Jesus and no later than AD 35. The evidence is so strong that early eyewitnesses encountered something that transformed them that it is included in Gary Habermas’s minimal facts. Habermas’s list of minimal facts is data concerning Jesus that are held to over 90% of scholarship, both progressive and conservative alike. Not only this, Richard Bauckham notes given the early nature of the NT creeds that “The earliest Christology was already the highest Christology” (Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel, x). Therefore, neither legendary material nor hallucinations account for these eyewitness encounters. The best interpretation is that Jesus literally rose from the dead and appeared to the numerous individuals who encountered him. These resurrection encounters transformed the witnesses to the point that they were willing to die for what they knew to be true—that Jesus has indeed risen!

Sources

Bauckham, Richard. Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament Christology of Divine Identity. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008.

Bultmann, Rudolf. New Testament Theology. Volume One. New York: Charles Sribner’s Sons, 1951.

Ehrman, Bart. Forged: Writing in the Name of God – Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are. New York: Harper One, 2011.

Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Real Jesus. San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco, 1996.

Lüdemann, Gerd. Paulus, der Grunder des Christentums. Lüneburg: zu Klampen, 2001.

Recommended resources related to the topic:

Early Evidence for the Resurrection by Dr. Gary Habermas (DVD), (Mp3) and (Mp4)

Cold Case Resurrection Set by J. Warner Wallace (books)

Jesus, You and the Essentials of Christianity – Episode 14 Video DOWNLOAD by Frank Turek (DVD)

The Footsteps of the Apostle Paul (mp4 Download), (DVD) by Dr. Frank Turek 

 

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Brian G. Chilton is the founder of BellatorChristi.com, the host of The Bellator Christi Podcast, and the author of the Layman’s Manual on Christian Apologetics. Brian is a Ph.D. Candidate of the Theology and Apologetics program at Liberty University. He received his Master of Divinity in Theology from Liberty University (with high distinction); his Bachelor of Science in Religious Studies and Philosophy from Gardner-Webb University (with honors); and received certification in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. Brian is enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Theology and Apologetics at Liberty University and is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Evangelical Philosophical Society. Brian has served in pastoral ministry for nearly 20 years. He currently serves as a clinical chaplain.

Original Blog Source: https://cutt.ly/qvGz9A5

 

By Tim Stratton

Recently I have been accused of “historical eisegesis.”[1]

According to Wikipedia, “eisegesis is the process of interpreting text in such a way as to introduce one’s own presuppositions . . . It is commonly referred to as reading into the text.” This is definitely a problem when someone does this when reading Scripture, but it’s never a compliment to be accused of this in any context.

The context of this accusation is regarding my book, Human Freedom, Divine Knowledge, and Mere Molinism. After surveying Luther, Calvin, and Philip Melanchthon, I concluded that the original Reformers were quite open to the concept of “limited libertarian freedom.” That is to say, although they might have rejected libertarian freedom when it comes to soteriological matters, they seemed to affirm the libertarian freedom to make choices regarding issues not related to salvation.

Indeed, the eminent Reformed scholar Richard Muller has reached similar conclusions in his book, Divine Will and Human Choice (p 222-223):

“Not a few of the proponents and critics of the Reformed doctrine of free choice and divine willing have confused the specifically soteriological determination of the Reformed doctrine of predestination with a ‘divine determinism of all human actions.”

Although I am not the first to point this out, the charge of “historical eisegesis” seems to have been lodged against me alone which left me scratching my head. How could anyone reach this conclusion after reading multiple quotes from the great Reformers I shared in my dissertation/book? One quote from Melanchthon particularly stood out to me. Although I thought Luther and Calvin were clear enough, if there were still any doubt, the great systematic theologian of the Reformation made it clear that humans seem to possess the freedom, opportunity, and categorical ability to do otherwise (libertarian freedom) in mundane matters not related to soteriology (salvation). Indeed, it is my favorite quote from the historical survey. Here is how it reads in my dissertation submitted to North-West University (also found on pg. 111 of my book):

Melanchthon (1521b:151)—the acknowledged theologian to Lutheranism—explains Luther’s position more thoroughly:

“Nor, indeed, do we deny liberty to the human will. The human will has liberty in the choice of works and things which reason comprehends by itself. It can to a certain extent render civil righteousness or the righteousness of works; it can speak of God, offer to God a certain service by an outward work, obey magistrates, parents; in the choice of an outward work it can restrain the hands from murder, from adultery, from theft. Since there is left in human nature reason and judgement concerning objects subjected to the senses, choice between these things, and the liberty and power to render civil righteousness, are also left…. Therefore, although we concede free will the liberty and power to perform the outward works of the Law, yet we do not ascribe to free will these spiritual matters, namely, truly to fear God, truly to believe God, truly to be confident and hold that God regards us, hears us, forgives us, etc.” [151].

Following this quote, I included one more from Melanchthon which seems to seal the deal. In fact, this is my favorite quote from any Reformer because he seems to be explicitly clear in describing libertarian freedom noting that we have power to choose or choose otherwise:

In another place Melanchthon (1521b:151) says: “You yourself have experienced that it is in your power to greet or not to greet him, to put on this coat or not put it on, to eat or not to do so…. By contrast, internal affections are not in our power.”

 If that does not sound like the limited libertarian freedom to choose or choose otherwise, I’m not sure what does.

After reading the words of the Reformed systematic theologian, how could anyone accuse me of “historical eisegesis?” Indeed, it seems to me that anyone reading the Reformers in their own words and reaching a different conclusion could be accused of the same. After contemplating this charge, I went to my book and was met with horror . . . Melanchthon’s key quote somehow did not make the final cut!

I have no idea how this happened. One of the most important and key quotes from my dissertation did not make it to my book for some reason (I am sure I am to blame — or gremlins)! I will rectify this situation in the second edition of my book. I’m currently working on a “Mere Molinism Study Guide” (which will be published by Wipf and Stock) co-authored with Timothy Fox. We will find a way to include it in the study guide when we write the section on the historical survey. Stay tuned!

Bottom line: There is good reason to believe that the original Reformers, although they rejected the idea of libertarian freedom regarding salvation issues, would also reject the idea of exhaustive divine determinism (EDD). It seems that they affirmed the idea of limited libertarian freedom in external matters (libertarian freedom limited to things unrelated to salvation issues).

Oswald Bayer seems to affirm libertarian freedom in these “external matters.” In fact, he contends that even the unregenerate can freely choose to do “good” things (or not). These “good” choices in the context of the community of the external world are meaningless regarding issues pertaining to salvation. Bayer summarizes the views that Luther, Melanchthon, and the majority of Reformers probably shared:

A human being has the freedom to order his or her own life. He or she carries responsibility for the way in which this occurs. A Christian acts in the realm of worldly justice together with those who are not Christians. In this realm, God preserves the reason and freedom of both Christians and non-Christians.[2]

Bayer (along with multiple other scholars) vindicates me from the charge of historical eisegesis.[3] Moreover, and more importantly, if Bayer is right about the beliefs of the original Reformers regarding limited libertarian freedom, and the Reformers also believed that an omniscient God knows these limited libertarian free choices logically prior to the divine creative decree and that God is still sovereign over these libertarian choices, then the original Reformers were “mere Molinists” whether they realized it or not!

Stay reasonable (Isaiah 1:18),

Dr. Tim Stratton

Notes

[1] Guillaume Bignon, A critical review and fairly comprehensive refutation of “Human Freedom, Divine Knowledge, and Mere Molinism” by Timothy A. Stratton, http://www.associationaxiome.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Response-to-Tim-Stratton.pdfSee my 50-page response here: Bignons’ Review of Mere Molinism: A Rejoinder.

[2] Freedom? The Anthropological Concepts in Luther and Melanchthon Compared Author(s): Oswald Bayer Source: The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 91, No. 4 (Oct.,1998), pp. 373-387 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Harvard Divinity School Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1509856 Accessed: 08-03-2018 20:23 UTC (Pg 385)

[3] Consider the words of Shedd (a Reformed systematic theologian) who affirms the sourcehood libertarian freedom of Adam:

“In respect to its having no sinful antecedent out of which it is made, sin is origination ex nihilo. Sin is the beginning of something from nothing, and there is this resemblance between it and creation proper. In holy Adam, there was no sinful inclination or corruption that prompted the first transgression. Adam started the wicked inclination itself ex nihilo, by a causative act of self-determination.”

William Greenough Thayer Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, ed. Alan W. Gomes, 3rd ed. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Pub., 2003), p. 521

Recommended resources related to the topic:

How to Interpret Your Bible by Dr. Frank Turek DVD Complete Series, INSTRUCTOR Study Guide, and STUDENT Study Guide

How Philosophy Can Help Your Theology by Richard Howe (MP3 Set), (mp4 Download Set), and (DVD Set)

 

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Timothy A. Stratton (Ph.D., North-West University) is a professor at Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary. As a former youth pastor, he is now devoted to answering deep theological and philosophical questions he first encountered from inquisitive teens in his church youth group. Stratton is the founder and president of FreeThinking Ministries, a web-based apologetics ministry. Stratton speaks on church and college campuses around the country and offers regular videos on FreeThinking Ministries’ YouTube channel.

Original Blog Source: https://cutt.ly/0vF2wLd

 

I have been publishing a series of articles addressing how one might best approach interpreting the early chapters of Genesis, and how science might illuminate Biblical texts and guide our hermeneutics.

In this article, I will explore the text of the first chapter of Scripture, Genesis 1, with a view towards determining whether this text commits one to a young earth interpretation of origins or at least the extent to which the text tends to support such a view, if at all.

It is common for young-earth creationists to presume that, if the young earth interpretation of the text can be demonstrated to be the most face-value or simplest hermeneutical approach, then this is the view that one should prefer, and thus the scientific evidence must be shoehorned into a young earth mold. However, as I have argued in previous articles, this does not necessarily follow, since we have to contend with not only special revelation, but general revelation as well. In view of the independent considerations that warrant belief that Genesis is inspired Scripture and those that compel us to affirm an ancient earth and cosmos, interpretations that result in harmony between science and Scripture ought to be preferred over those that put them in conflict. Charles Hodge (1797-1878), a nineteenth-century conservative Presbyterian put it this way[1]:

It is, of course, admitted that taking [the Genesis creation] account by itself, it would be most natural to understand the word [“day”] in its ordinary sense; but if that sense brings the Mosaic account into conflict with facts, and another sense avoids such conflict, then it is obligatory on us to adopt that other.… The Church has been forced more than once to alter her interpretation of the Bible to accommodate the discoveries of science. But this has been done without doing any violence to the Scriptures or in any degree impairing their authority.

As I have argued before, ad hoc auxiliary hypotheses in respect to either science or Scripture may reasonably be invoked only if the overall evidence for Christianity is sufficient to bear it. In my considered opinion, the evidence for Christianity, strong though it is, is insufficient to bear the weight of a young earth interpretation of cosmic and geological history. I do, however, think that it is sufficient to bear the weight of an old earth interpretation of Scripture (though I realize that a certain level of subjectivity is required in making this assessment). Therefore, if the text of Scripture does compel one to subscribe to a young earth view, then the hypothesis that Scripture is in error should be preferred over concluding that the earth and cosmos are, in fact, young (i.e. on the order of thousands of years). However, alternative interpretive approaches that do not entail a manifestly false implication should be fairly evaluated before such a conclusion is arrived at.

An important consideration in regards to the assessment of harmonizations, often overlooked, is that the evidential weight of a proposed error or contradiction in Scripture relates not so much to the probability of any one proposed harmonization but rather to the disjunction of the probabilities associated with each individual candidate harmonization. To take a simplistic example, if one has four harmonizations that each have a 10% probability of being correct, then the evidential weight of the problem is significantly less than if you only had one of those since the disjunction of the relevant probabilities would be 40%. Thus, the text would be only slightly more likely erroneous than not (and inductive arguments for substantial trustworthiness may tip the scales in favor of giving the author the benefit of the doubt). In reality, of course, the math is rather more complicated than this, since one has to consider whether any of the harmonizations are overlapping or would imply one another in such a way that the probabilities cannot be added to each other. This principle may be applied to our analysis of the text of Genesis 1 — the disjunction of the various interpretations that can be offered reduces the evidential value of the case from those texts against the text’s reliability. Of course, if some of the disjuncts have a very low probability of being correct, then they will not be of much help.

If it be found that the Biblical text has indeed erred, then we would need to explore the ramifications of that finding. It should be acknowledged that a demonstration of the falsehood of inerrancy would constitute some evidence against inspiration and in turn against Christianity, since one has to acknowledge that there is some pull toward inerrancy if one holds that a book is divinely inspired in any meaningful sense, though I am not convinced that inspiration necessarily entails inerrancy, depending on the model of inspiration that one adopts (perhaps a subject for a future article). However, since inerrancy is an ‘all-or-nothing’ proposition, once a single error has been admitted (and thus inerrancy falsified), the evidential weight against Christianity that is carried by subsequent demonstrations of similar types of errors is substantially reduced. Some proposed errors would be of greater consequence than others. Some errors (such as the reported long life spans discussed in my previous article) would affect only the doctrine of inerrancy (as well as being epistemically relevant to the substantial trustworthiness of particular Biblical books), whereas others (such as the non-existence of a robust historical Adam), being inextricably linked to other core propositions of Christianity, would be much more serious. Another factor that influences the epistemic consequence of Scriptural errors is the source of those errors. Deliberate distortions of fact, for example, have a much greater negative effect on both the doctrine that the book is inspired and the substantial trustworthiness of the document than errors introduced in good faith.

Did God Create a Mature Universe?

A popular mistake made by advocates of young-earth creationism is to assume that if a piece of evidence can be interpreted in a manner that is consistent with a young earth interpretation of cosmic and geological history then that piece of evidence does not support an old earth view and so need not concern them. However, this is quite mistaken. Evidence may tend to confirm a hypothesis even if it can be interpreted in a manner consistent with an alternative view. To count as confirming evidence, it only has to be more probable on the truth of the hypothesis in question than on its falsehood. The more such evidences there are that have to be re-interpreted so as to be in alignment with a young earth perspective, the more ad hoc and therefore implausible the young-earth model of origins becomes.

One attempt to salvage young earth creationism that I often encounter from lay-creationists (though less frequently from academic ones) is to postulate that the earth and Universe were created mature, in a manner akin to Christ’s transformation of water into mature wine (Jn 2:1-11). To many, this postulation has the attraction of allowing one to dismiss the evidence of vast age as saying nothing about how old the earth actually is, in a similar manner to how Adam, having been created mature, would appear to be much older than he actually was. However, this explanation will not work because the geological record appears to tell a story of historical events, including the existence of animal death long before man, something that young earth interpretations of Scripture typically preclude (though I do not find Scriptural arguments for this convincing).

Furthermore, there is a remarkable correlation between the dates that are yielded by the radiometric dating methods and the types of organisms found in the strata. For example, if you were to specify a date yielded by the radiometric dating techniques to a paleontologist (say, for example, rock dating to the Cambrian period), he would be able to predict, with precision, what organisms you would expect to be preserved in rocks dating to that age — as well as what you would not expect to find — regardless of where in the world you identified it. That remarkable correlation is quite unexpected on a young earth’s interpretation of geological history but totally unsurprising on an old earth’s interpretation.

Our observation of distant galaxies, often millions of light-years away from the earth (meaning the light leaving those stars takes millions of years to be observed by an observer on earth), is also something that is highly expected on an old earth interpretation but quite surprising on a young earth interpretation. Positing light created in transit will not help here, since we are able to observe events in deep space (such as supernovae) which, on such a view, would be merely illusory (since the light would never have in fact left those events in the first place). This would mean that much of our stellar observations are illusory, an implication that I find highly troubling. While one can attempt to postulate convoluted ad hoc rationalizations of distant star light, as some have done, it still must be recognized as far less surprising on an old earth view than on a young earth view, and thus evidence that is confirmatory of the old earth view.

A further great difficulty is the need to postulate that all of the meteor impacts with the earth have taken place during the past six thousand years, including the one that caused the meteor crater in the Gulf of Mexico, thought to have resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago, as well as the meteor that caused the Vredefort Dome, thought to be the biggest impact crater in the world, located in Potchefstroom, South Africa. The latter of those is thought to have taken place more than two billion years ago. If either of those impacts had occurred in the last six thousand years (as required by young earth creationism), the effect on human civilization and animal life around the globe would have been devastating, and yet there is no evidence that such impacts have occurred in recorded history. While some geologists have historically argued that the Vredefort Dome is the result of a volcanic event, this is a minority view that today is not widely accepted. The consensus view is that it is a meteor impact zone, and various lines of evidence support this, including evidence of shock in the quartz grains and evidence of rapid melting of the granite, turning it into glass.

These are only the beginning of the scientific challenges to young-earth creationism. Cumulatively, the numerous lines of evidence that convergently point in the direction of an old earth and cosmos are quite overwhelming. While I could talk for some time about the scientific challenges to young-earth creationism (perhaps a subject for a future article), the primary purpose of this article is to assess the extent to which, if any, the text of Genesis inclines one towards a young earth interpretation of cosmic and earth history. It is to this that I now turn.

Can One Interpret the Creation Days to Be Literal and Consecutive While Rejecting Young Earth Creationism?

Before I address the question of whether the ‘days’ of creation week are best understood to be literal and consecutive, I will first assess whether it is possible to take the ‘days’ to be literal and consecutive while simultaneously rejecting the implication of young-earth creationism. There are two major schools of thought that answer that question in the affirmative, and so I will here offer a brief discussion of those approaches.

In 1996, John Sailhamer put forward the view (which he calls “historical creationism”) that, whereas Genesis 1:1 depicts the creation of the Universe, Genesis 1:2-2:4a describes a period of one week (that is, seven solar days) during which the promised land was prepared and human beings were created in it.[2] Sailhamer’s book has some impressive endorsements, including John Piper[3], Mark Driscoll[4], and Matt Chandler[5].

Sailhamer argues that the meaning of “earth” in verse 1 is different from the meaning in verse 2. He argues that in verse 1, its connection to the word “heavens” indicates that it is being used to refer to the cosmos. He argues, “when these two terms [sky and land] are used together as a figure of speech, they take on a distinct meaning of their own. Together, they mean far more than the sum of the meanings of the two individual words.”[6] When these words are used together, argues Sailhamer, they “form a figure of speech called a ‘merism.’ A merism combines two words to express a single idea. A merism expresses ‘totality’ by combining two contrasts or two extremes.”[7] Sailhamer uses the example of David’s statement that God knows his sitting down and rising up.[8] This statement expresses the fact that God has exhaustive knowledge of everything that he does (Ps 139). Thus, concludes Sailhamer, “the concept of ‘everything’ is expressed by combining the two opposites ‘my sitting down’ and ‘my rising up’.”[9] Sailhamer draws the parallel between this and the reference to the sky and land in Genesis 1:1. He notes, “by linking these two extremes into a single expression — ‘sky and land’ or ‘heavens and earth’ — the Hebrew language expresses the totality of all that exists. Unlike English, Hebrew doesn’t have a single word to express the concept of ‘the universe’; it must do so by means of a merism. The expression ‘sky and land’ thus stands for the ‘entirety of the universe.’”[10] Sailhamer argues (correctly in my view) that Genesis 1:1 is not, as some have suggested, a title or summary of the chapter, but rather refers to a distinct divine act that took place prior to the six days described in the remainder of the chapter.[11]

If only Genesis 1:1 describes the creation of the Universe, then what is the remainder of the chapter about? Sailhamer suggests that it describes God preparing the promised land for the occupation of mankind. He points out, correctly, that the Hebrew word אֶ֫רֶץ (“eretz”) generally refers to a localized region of the planet, rather than to the earth as a whole, so it is quite legitimate to translate the word as “land” rather than as “earth”. For example, the same word “land” is contrasted in Genesis 1:10 with the seas. Sailhamer notes that “the ‘seas’ do not cover the ‘land’ as would be the case if the term meant ‘earth.’ Rather the ‘seas’ lie adjacent to the ‘land’ and within it.”[12]

Sailhamer argues that the expression תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ (“tohu wabohu”) is best translated not as “formless and void” (which suggests that the earth was an unformed mass) but rather as “deserted wilderness”, which, he argues, sets the scene for God’s work to render the land inhabitable to mankind.

One concern I have about Sailhamer’s thesis is that, while it is true that the phrase “the heavens and the earth” is a merism that refers to the entire Universe, this merism shows up not only in Genesis 1:1 but also in 2:1, which states “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” This verse seems to indicate that the entirety of Genesis 1 is concerned with the heavens and the earth, i.e. the Universe as a whole, not only to a localized region of the earth. The Sabbath commandment also refers to God having made in six days “heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them,” (Exod 20:11). This also seems to suggest strongly that the perspective of Genesis 1 is global rather than local. A further problem is that it seems rather unlikely that the word “earth” refers in Genesis 1 to some specific “land”, since the “earth” is contrasted with the seas (Gen 1:10). Furthermore, the waters of the fifth day are populated with the great sea creatures (Gen 1:21), which indicates that it refers to the oceans.

A more recent attempt to harmonize an interpretation of the creation days that takes them to be both literal and consecutive, known as the cosmic temple view, has been put forward by Old Testament scholar John Walton of Wheaton College.[13] Walton interprets the days of creation as a chronological sequence of twenty-four-hour days. However, he writes that these days are “not given as the period of time over which the material cosmos came into being, but the period of time devoted to the inauguration of the functions of the cosmic temple, and perhaps also its annual re-enactment.”[14]

Walton argues that Genesis 1 does not concern material origins at all. Instead, he asserts that the text concerns assignment of functions. Walton argues that, during the days of creation week, which he takes to be regular solar days, God was “establishing functions”[15] and “installed its functionaries”[16] for the created order. Walton concedes that “Theoretically it could be both. But assuming that we simply must have a material account if we are going to say anything meaningful, is cultural imperialism.”[17] Walton maintains that the thesis he proposes is “not a view that has been rejected by other scholars; it is simply one they have never considered because their material ontology was a blind presupposition for which no alternative was ever considered.”[18] However, as philosopher John Lennox rightly points out, “Surely, if ancient readers thought only in functional terms, the literature would be full of it, and scholars would be very aware of it?”[19]

Moreover, it is not clear exactly what is entailed by God assigning functions to the sun and moon, and the land and sea creatures if, as Walton maintains, this has nothing to do with material origins. Analytic philosopher Lydia McGrew also notes that[20],

…it is difficult to figure out what Walton means by God’s establishing functions and installing functionaries in a sense that has nothing to do with material origins! Perhaps the most charitable thing to do would be to throw up one’s hands and conclude that the book is radically unclear. What could it mean for all the plants already to be growing, providing food for animals, the sun to be shining, etc., but for these entities nonetheless to lack functions prior to a set of specific 24-hour days in a specific week?

What would creation week have looked like from the standpoint of an earthly observer? According to Walton, “The observer in Genesis 1 would see day by day that everything was ready to do for people what it had been designed to do. It would be like taking a campus tour just before students were ready to arrive to see all the preparations that had been made and how everything had been designed, organized and constructed to serve students.”[21] Furthermore, Walton claims, the “main elements lacking in the ‘before’ picture are therefore humanity in God’s image and God’s presence in his cosmic temple.”[22]

Walton asserts that in the ancient worldview it was possible for something to materially exist but not to exist functionally. He claims that “people in the ancient world believed that something existed not by virtue of its material properties, but by virtue of its having a function in an ordered system. Here I do not refer to an ordered system in scientific terms, but an ordered system in human terms, that is in relation to society and culture.”[23] Walton places great emphasis on the meaning of the Hebrew verb בָּרָ֣א (“bara”), meaning “to create”. He offers a list of words that form objects of the verb בָּרָ֣א and asserts that the “grammatical objects of the verb are not easily identifiable in material terms.”[24] Walton lists the accompanying purpose or function that is assigned to each of the created entities. He then attempts to suggest that “a large percentage of the contexts require a functional understanding.”[25] This, however, does not exclude a material understanding. Even more odd is Walton’s statement that “This list shows that grammatical objects of the verb are not easily identified in material terms, and even when they are, it is questionable that the context is objectifying them.”[26] However, the chart that Walton presents lists objects of the verb that are material entities — including people, creatures, a cloud of smoke, rivers, the starry host, etc. It is certainly true that not all of these usages of the verb בָּרָ֣א refer to de novo special creation. For example, the creation of Israel (Isa 43:15) was not a special de novo material creation by divine fiat. However, even our English verbs “to create” and “to make” can have this flexibility of meaning, and its precise usage can be discerned from the context. If I say that I am going to create a new business, I do not mean that I am creating employees and office space de novo. Likewise, when the psalmist asks God to “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps 51:10), while “create” is not being used here in a material sense, the genre is clearly poetic, and so caution should be exercised about extrapolating the meaning of a metaphorical usage of the word to its regular usage. A yet further problem with Walton’s interpretation of the verb בָּרָ֣א as having only an interest in function in Genesis 1 is the fact that, as C. John Collins has noted, “1:26-31 are parallel to 2:4-25; this means that the ‘forming of the man using dust (2:7), and the ‘building’ of the woman using the man’s rib (2:22), are parallel descriptions of the ‘creation’ of the first human of 1:27. Hence it makes sense to read 1:27 as a description of a material operation.”[27]

Michael Jones, a popular Christian YouTube apologist, has in recent years championed Walton’s thesis. To Walton’s arguments in support of his contention that Genesis 1 does not concern material origins, Jones adds a very odd argument.[28] He cites Jeremiah 4:23-26, which says of Israel,

23 I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. 24 I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. 25 I looked, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the air had fled. 26 I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger.

Jones comments[29],

If Genesis 1 is about the material creation of all things, we should expect the same language in reverse to be disintegration of the materials spoken about. However, when Assyria conquered Israel and deported all the elites, we don’t suggest the fabric of space/time ripped open and the land of Israel popped out of existence. Instead, we understand the kingdom went from a productive functioning society to a chaotic land. The light from the sun literally did not stop shining on that region. It was just part of the cultural expression to say the kingdom went from an ordered society into disorder. And thus, the reverse in Genesis 1 would only suggest that God took a disordered chaos and ordered it to be a functioning temple for himself and the humans therein, not the beginning of all matter as we know it.

While Michael Jones has a brilliant mind and has made very welcome contributions to the field of apologetics, this interpretation reflects a total disregard of the rhetoric of Jeremiah. The prophet is using a portrayal as if it were the case that the sun had gone out, and “there was no man, and all the birds of the air had fled.” He is not making an ontological statement.

Furthermore, the arguments that Walton adduces in support of his contention that in the ancient worldview it was possible for something to materially exist but not to exist functionally seem to me to be very weak, even seeming to undermine his position. Walton, for example, asserts that in Hittite literature, there is a creation myth that speaks of “cutting heaven and earth apart with a copper cutting tool.”[30] He also quotes the Egyptian Papyrus Insinger as stating regarding the god, “He created food before those who are alive, the wonder of the fields. He created the constellation of those that are in the sky, so that those on earth should learn them. He created sweet water in it which all the lands desire.”[31] Walton also says that the Babylonian creation epic, Enuma Elish, has Maduk “harnessing the waters of Tiamat for the purpose of providing the basis of agriculture. It includes the piling up of dirt, releasing the Tigris and Euphrates, and digging holes to manage the catchwater.”[32] However, it is not clear to me how these texts support Walton’s thesis. No argument is offered for why the ancients did not believe that the gods physically separated the heavens from the earth. Just because we, as modern readers, take the face value reading of those texts to be manifestly false does not mean that an ancient audience necessarily would have. Walton also offers no argument to support the conclusion that either the author or audience of the text concerning the Tigris and the Euphrates did not interpret the text to say that Marduk physically released the rivers and constructed the holes to manage the catchwater.

Another key issue here is that there is no reason to believe that assignment of function and an interest in material origins are in any sense mutually exclusive. It is a non-sequitur to reason that since the the word בָּרָ֣א is often associated with a mention of functional assignment that it therefore had no connotations regarding material origins. Functional assignment and material origins go hand-in-hand, since material design is what allows an entity to perform its function.

Having rejected interpretations that propose to harmonize an old earth perspective with an interpretation of the creation week as being a series of six consecutive solar days, we must now address the question of what interpretive paradigm makes best sense of the text of Genesis 1, and it is to this question that I now turn.

In the Beginning

In Genesis 1:1-3, we read,

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

It has been often noted that verse 3 marks the first occurrence of the phrase “And God said…”. This expression is used to denote the commence of each of the six days of creation week (vv. 3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24). Thus, it may be argued, the first day of creation week begins in fact in verse 3, not in verse 1. Therefore, by the time that one reaches the first day of creation week, the heavens and the earth already exist. Therefore, irrespective of what one thinks about the age of the biosphere (a separate discussion), Scripture is completely silent on the age of the Universe and the earth — even if the days of creation week are taken to be literal and consecutive. Moreover, when God says “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3), marking the commence of the first ‘day’ of creation week, this can be understood as God summoning the dawn of the first day, since the expression “Let there be…” does not necessarily indicate that something came into being — e.g. the Psalmist says “let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,” (Ps 33:22), which does not imply that God’s steadfast love had not previously been with them.

This argument is not without objection. For example, some writers take verse 1 to be a summary heading of the whole account rather than describing an event that took place an unspecified time prior to the first day of creation week.[33] However, Hebrew scholar C. John Collins notes that this interpretation is less likely, since “the verb created in Genesis 1:1 is in the perfect, and the normal use of the perfect at the very beginning of a pericope is to denote an event that took place before the storyline gets under way.”[34] John Sailhamer also adduces a few reasons that make it more likely that Genesis 1:1 describes an event that happened prior to creation week, rather than being a summary title.[35] First, Genesis 1:1 is a complete sentence and makes a statement, which is not how titles are formed in Hebrew. For instance, Genesis 5:1 serves as a title for the verses that follow, and reads like this: “This is the book of the generations of Adam.” Second, verse 2 begins with the conjunction “and.” This, however, is surprising if Genesis 1:1 is intended to be a summary heading of the whole chapter. Sailhamer notes that if 1:1 were a summary title, “the section immediately following it would surely not begin with the conjunction ‘and.’”[36] Third, there is a summary statement of chapter 1 found at its conclusion, in 2:1, which would render a summary title at he beginning of chapter redundant. It seems rather unlikely that the account would have two summary titles.

Perhaps the strongest argument for understanding Genesis 1:1 to be a summarizing title of the entire pericope was presented by Bruce Waltke.[37] He argues that the combination “the heavens and the earth” is a merism referring to “the organized universe, the cosmos.”[38] He argues that “this compound never has the meaning of disorderly chaos but always of an orderly world.”[39] He further contends that “disorder, darkness, and deep” suggest “a situation not tolerated in the perfect cosmos and never said to have been called into existence by the Word of God.”[40] However, C. John Collins responds to this argument by noting that the expression “without form and void” (Gen 1:2) is not a phrase for “disorderly chaos” but rather it depicts the earth as “an unproductive and uninhabited place.”[41] He points out that “There is no indication that the ‘deep’ is any kind of opponent to God; indeed, in the rest of the Bible it does his bidding and praises him (compare Gen. 7:11; 8:1; 49:25; Pss. 33:7; 104:6; 135:6; 148:7; Prov. 3:20; 8:28). And since God names the darkness (Gen. 1:5), there is no reason to believe that it opposes his will, either.”[42]

In any case, while there is ongoing scholarly debate between those competing interpretations, reading Genesis 1:1 as a description of events that take place prior to creation week is at the very least plausible, if not somewhat favored as the most likely meaning. Thus, there is certainly no room for dogmatism that Genesis 1 commits one to a young Universe or earth, regardless of what one thinks about the age of the biosphere (which will relate to how one understands the ‘days’ of creation week).

Some scholars argue that Genesis 1:1 should in fact be translated, “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void…”[43]  Such a reading would be consistent with Genesis 1 not referring to the special creation of the Universe from nothing but rather bringing about order and organization to a chaotic and formless void. However, C. John Collins states that “the simplest rendering of the Hebrew as we have it is the conventional one (which is how the ancient versions in Greek and Latin took it).”[44] The main argument for this alternative translation is the lack of a definite article in the opening words. The text as we have it says בְּרֵאשִׁית (“bere’shit”), whereas proponents of the translation under discussion would argue that the traditional translation would make more sense if it instead said בָּרֵאשִׁית (“bare’shit”). However, as C. John Collins notes, “Because we have no evidence that any ancient author found this a problem, the conventional reading stands.”[45] This too is an item of ongoing academic debate. However, even if the alternative reading is correct, we would not lose anything since plenty of other Biblical texts indicate that the Universe is temporally finite, and that God brought it into being ex nihilo.

Are the ‘Days’ of Genesis 1 Literal?

Discussion of the interpretation of Genesis 1 has tended to focus on the proper translation of the Hebrew word יוֹם (“yom”). Perhaps the best-known representative of the old earth position is Hugh Ross of “Reasons to Believe,” though I often find his interpretations to be somewhat strained and far-fetched. Hugh Ross notes that “the Hebrew word yom, translated ‘day,’ is used in biblical Hebrew (as in modern English) to indicate any of four-time periods: (a) some portion of the daylight (hours); (b) sunrise to sunset; (c) sunset to sunset; or (d) a segment of time without any reference to solar days (from weeks to a year to several years to an age or epoch.” [46] This is correct, but, as in modern English, the context allows the reader to discern which of those literal meanings is in view.

In Genesis 2:4, we read,

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.

Here, the Hebrew word יוֹם refers to an indefinite but finite period of time, corresponding to definition (d) offered by Hugh Ross above. However, the context makes it obvious that this is the reading that is in view. In English, we also use expressions like “back in the day” to refer to an indefinite but finite period of time, and there is no ambiguity about whether it refers to a literal day or a longer period of time. Likewise, we might say “the day was almost over”, and that would make it clear that the the word “day” is intended to be understood as referring to daylight hours, corresponding to definition (a) of Ross’ set of literal meanings. Young earth creationists typically respond to Ross’ proposed translation, rightly in my view, by observing that the use of the words “evening” and “morning”, combined with an ordinal number, in referring to the days of creation week, makes it clear that a solar day is in view, either of a 12 hour or 24 hour duration.[47] What is often overlooked, however, is that settling the issue of translating the word יוֹם does not in itself indicate whether it is intended to be understood literally or figuratively. It also does not indicate whether the days are strictly consecutive, or whether there may be gaps between each of the days. Those are logically downstream questions of the issue of translation and must be addressed separately.

Is there any example in Scripture where the word יוֹם is clearly best translated as “day” in the regular sense, and yet is not intended to be understood literally? Indeed there is. In Hosea 6:2, we read,

Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.

The context here is that Israel has been subjected to God’s judgment. This text is a call for Israel to return to the Lord to receive healing and restoration. Whereas the Hebrew word יוֹם is used here (the same word translated as “day” in Genesis 1) along with an ordinal number, the word “day” is clearly being used in a non-literal sense and refers almost certainly to a longer period of time. The usage of the word “day”, when combined with an ordinal number, in a non-literal sense here at least renders it possible that the word “day” in Genesis 1 is being used in a non-literal sense as well. This does not by itself make it probable, but it at least opens up the possibility.

How, then, are the days of Genesis 1 best understood? There are a number of clues in the text that the days are not meant to be understood literally. C. John Collins observes that, whereas each of the six workdays has the refrain “and there was evening and there was morning, the nth day,” this refrain is missing from the seventh day.[48] Collins suggests that this may be explained by positing that the seventh day on which God rested has not come to an end, like the other six days, but continues even to the present time. In support of this, Collins appeals to two New Testament texts — John 5:17 and Hebrews 4:3-11. In the former reference, Jesus gets into trouble for having healed a man on the Sabbath day. Jesus responds by saying that “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” Collins suggests that Jesus should be interpreted to be saying here, “My Father is working on his Sabbath, just as I am working on my Sabbath.”[49] Collins concludes that “we can account for that most easily if we take Jesus to mean that the creation Sabbath still goes on.”[50] In Hebrews 4:3-11, the author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 95:11, which indicates that unbelievers will not enter the “rest” of God (v. 3). The author then notes that God “rested” on the seventh day (v. 4). The author asserts that Joshua did not give the Hebrews “rest”. Since the context of Psalm 95:11 is God forbidding the Hebrews who had left Egypt from entering the promised land, the contention of the author of Hebrews that Joshua did not give the people true “rest” indicates that he does not understand Psalm 95:11 literally. Rather, there is a Sabbath rest for God’s people to enter into. And how can God’s people enter into God’s rest? By resting from their works as God did from His (v. 10). Collins concludes, “This makes good sense if ‘God’s rest,’ which he entered on the creation Sabbath, is the same ‘rest’ that believers enter—and thus God’s rest is still available because it still continues.”[51] This interpretation is not a modern one. Indeed, Augustine of Hippo wrote in his Confessions that the seventh day of creation “hath no evening, nor hath it setting; because Thou hast sanctified it to an everlasting continuance.”[52] What are the implications of this insight? Collins notes, “If the seventh day is not an ordinary one, then we may begin to wonder if perhaps the other six days have to be ordinary.”[53]

  1. John Collins also points to Genesis 2:5-7, in which we read,

5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Collins notes that this text is “out of step with the sequence of the days in the first story: there, God made the plants on the third day, as we find in 1:11-12.”[54] Furthermore, “2:5-6 says that those plants weren’t there because it hadn’t yet rained (which is the ‘ordinary providence’ reason for plants not being there), while Genesis 1 has them being created (which is a special situation).”[55] These texts are best harmonized by taking Genesis 2:5-7 to be referring to a localized region of the earth, not to the globe as a whole — that is to say, in a specific region of the planet, “no small plant of the field had yet sprung up” since it had not yet rained. That the origins of plants described in Genesis 1:11-12 refers to a different event from that described in Genesis 2:5-7 is apparent given that Genesis 2:5 indicates that the reason why the bushes and plants of the field had not sprung up is because there had been no rain, which implies that the plant growth relates to God’s ordinary providence, not to their special creation by divine fiat, as in 1:11-12. In other words, it was the dry season. Collins points out that “In Palestine, it doesn’t rain during the summer, and the autumn rains bring about a burst of plant growth. So verses 5–7 would make good sense if we supposed that they describe a time of year when it has been a dry summer, so the plants aren’t growing—but the rains and the man are about to come, so the plants will be able to grow in the ‘land.’”[56] Collins concludes, “The only way that I can make any sense out of this ordinary providence explanation that the Bible itself gives is if I imagine that the cycle of rain, plant growth, and dry season had been going on for some number of years before this point—because the text says nothing about God not yet having made the plants.”[57] If this is the case, then this would suggest that the length of the six days of creation could not have been that of an ordinary week, since it would imply that the cycle of seasons had been going on for some time.

One may observe that Genesis 1:11-12 does not necessarily entail that God created fully grown plants de novo, since the text indicates that “The earth brought forth vegetation…” This would allow one to take plant growth as taking place by God establishing the cycle of ordinary providence. However, since vegetation and fruit trees take more than a day to grow and develop by ordinary providence, this would likewise entail a creation week that is rather different in terms of duration than our typical week. In my opinion, positing that Genesis 1:11-12 and Genesis 2:5-6 refer to distinct events, the latter being more local in scope, is the simplest and most natural explanation of the relevant data. This, then, for the reasons articulated above, tends to suggest a creation week that is not identical in length to our regular seven-day week.

There are still yet further clues that the duration of creation week is not like our typical weeks. For example, many have noted the sheer number of events that are said to have taken place on the sixth day, which presumably would have taken more time than a single solar day. Collins lists the various things that are said to have happened on the sixth day: “God makes the land animals, forms Adam, plants the Garden and moves the man there, lays instructions upon him, puts him through a search for ‘a helper fit for him’ (and during this search Adam names all the animals), casts a deep sleep over him and makes a woman out of his rib.”[58] Furthermore, when Adam is united with the woman, Eve, whom God had formed, Adam responds, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”[59] This is suggestive of Adam having waited a long time for a suitable helper.

Besides the discussion of whether the ‘days’ of creation week are to be understood literally or not, there is also the issue of whether there is any reason to preclude the possibility of there being gaps between the days, even if those days are taken as regular days. Indeed, John Lennox suggests “that the writer did not intend us to think of the first six days as days of a single earth week, but rather as a sequence of six creation days; that is, days of normal length (with evenings and mornings as the text says) in which God acted to create something new, but days that might well have been separated by long periods of time. We have already seen that Genesis separates the initial creation, ‘the beginning,’ from the sequence of days. What we are now suggesting in addition is that the individual days might well have been separated from one another by unspecified periods of time.”[60] I am not aware of any linguistic reason to exclude this possibility.

To recap, while the young earth creationists are correct that the best translation of the Hebrew word יוֹם in the context of Genesis 1 is “day”, the text of Genesis 1 is consistent with the creation week being quite unlike our ordinary weeks with respect to duration. What, though, is the best way to understand the nature of the days of creation? It is to this question that I now turn.

An Analogical Days Approach

My own view is closest to that espoused by C. John Collins, which he calls the analogical days view.[61] Collins notes that “the best explanation is the one that takes these days as not the ordinary kind; they are instead ‘God’s workdays.’ Our workdays are not identical to them, but analogous. The purpose of the analogy is to set a pattern for the human rhythm of work and rest. The length of these days is not relevant to this purpose.”[62] An advantage of this approach is that one can understand the word “day” in its ordinary sense but apply its meaning analogically, just as we do with other analogical expressions such as the “eyes of the Lord” (in that case, we do not need to propose an alternative translation of the Hebrew word for “eye”, but rather understand its ordinary meaning in an analogical sense).

The analogical days interpretation also allows us to make sense of the Sabbath commandment in Exodus 20:8-11, in which we read,

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Young-earth creationists argue that this text indicates that the creation week was comprised of six ordinary days since it is said to set a pattern for a human workweek. However, as Collins notes, “this misses two key points: the first is what we have already noticed about the creation rest being unique. The second is that our working and resting cannot be identical to God’s—they are like God’s in some way, but certainly not the same.”[63] Collins points out that there are obvious points of disanalogy between God’s workweek and ours — “For example, when was the last time you spoke and caused a plant to grow up? Rather, our planting and watering, and fertilizing are like God’s work because they operate on what’s there and make it produce something it wouldn’t have produced otherwise. Our rest is like God’s because we cease from our work for the sake of contemplating his works with pleasure.”[64] Furthermore, God is said to have rested on the Sabbath day. Collins points out that “That last word in Hebrew, ‘was refreshed,’ carries the sense of getting your breath back after being worn out (see Ex. 23:12; 2 Sam. 16:14); and I can assure you that you don’t want to say that God needs that kind of refreshment (see Isa. 40:28–31—God doesn’t get weary). Instead, we have to see it as an analogy: there are points of similarity between the two things, but also points of difference.”[65] Of course, there is also an analogy between God’s work week and the six years of sowing the land followed by a seventh year of rest (Exod 23:10-11).

One consideration that I would add to Collins’ case is that the ancients often used numbers symbolically rather than literally. For example, the evangelist Matthew refers to three sets of “fourteen generations” — from Abraham to David, from David to the exile, and from the exile to Christ (Mt 1:17) — even though he has to duplicate and skip generations to make the math work. He probably does this because fourteen is the numerical value of David’s name in Hebrew, and Matthew intends to express that Jesus is the promised Davidic heir. It seems to me, therefore, to be not much of a stretch to speculate that perhaps a similar thing is going on in Genesis 1, where the number seven is being used in a symbolic rather than literal sense.

There may also be other reasons, besides the analogy to the human workweek, why the author of Genesis chose to use the number seven. Earlier in this article, I criticized the cosmic temple view of Genesis 1 advocated by John Walton. However, one useful insight of Walton’s analysis is the parallels that he draws between the Biblical creation account and that concerning the construction of the tabernacle and temple. For example, he observes that “Isaiah 66:1 expresses clearly the temple/cosmos function in biblical theology as it identifies heaven as God’s throne and earth as his footstool, providing a resting place for him. God likewise achieves rest on the seventh day of creation, just as he takes up rest in his temple.”[66] That God takes up rest in His temple is evident from Psalm 132:13-14, in which we read, “For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place: ‘This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.’”

Walton further observes that “the celestial bodies are referred to using the unusual term ‘lights,’ which throughout the rest of the Pentateuch refers to the lights of the lampstand in the tabernacle.”[67] Furthermore, “the idea of rivers flowing from the holy place is found both in Genesis 2 (which we will suggest portrays Eden as the Most Holy Place) and in Ezekiel’s temple (Ezek. 47:1).”[68] Along similar lines, Michael Fishbane further argues that[69],

Indeed, as Martin Buber long ago noted, a series of key verbal parallels exists between the account of the creation of the world and the description of the building of the tabernacle in the desert (compare Genesis 1:31; 2:1; 2:2; 2:3 with Exodus 39:43; 39:32: 40:33; and 39:43, respectively). Thus, “Moses saw all the work” which the people “did” in constructing the tabernacle; “and Moses completed the work” and “blessed” the people for all their labors.

… Manifestly, then, the building of the tabernacle has been presented in the image of the creation of the world, and signified as an extension of a process begun at the creation.

Walton also points to Exodus 40:34 and 1 Kings 8:11, which indicate that the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and temple respectively.[70] Walton compares these texts to Isaiah 6:3, which describes the vision of Isaiah in the temple, where the seraphim call out to one another, saying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” A yet further connection between creation and the temple is Psalm 78:69, which says, “He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever.”

Now, this is where it gets interesting in relation to the seven ‘days’ described in the creation account. G.K. Beale observes that[71],

More specifically, both accounts of the creation and building of the tabernacle are structured around a series of seven acts: cf. ‘And God said’ (Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24, 26; cf. vv. 11, 28, 29) and ‘the LORD said’ (Exod. 25:1; 30:11, 17, 22, 34; 31:1, 12) (Sailhamer 1992: 298–299). In the light of observing similar and additional parallels between the ‘creation of the world’ and ‘the construction of the sanctuary’, J. Blenkinsopp concludes that ‘the place of worship is a scaled-down cosmos’ (1992: 217–218).
Levenson also suggests that the same cosmic significance is to be seen from the fact that Solomon took seven years to build the temple (1 Kgs. 6:38), that he dedicated it on the seventh month, during the Feast of Booths (a festival of seven days [1 Kgs. 8]), and that his dedicatory speech was structured around seven petitions (1 Kgs. 8:31–55). Hence, the building of the temple appears to have been modelled on the seven-day creation of the world, which also is in line with the building of temples in seven days elsewhere in the Ancient Near East (Levenson 1988: 78–79). Just as God rested on the seventh day from his work of creation, so when the creation of the tabernacle and, especially, the temple are finished, God takes up a ‘resting place’ therein.

Perhaps, therefore, the organization of the creation account around seven days is an aspect of the intended parallels between creation and the temple or tabernacle, which would provide another reason why the number seven may be used in a symbolic sense in Genesis 1.

Are the Days of Creation Chronologically Arranged?

A further question we must address is that of whether the text of Genesis 1 requires us to take the days as being in chronological sequence, and if so, whether that raises any problems. The biggest problem with the chronological interpretation of the creation days is that photosynthetic plants are created before the sun. Indeed, the sun is not created until day four. Hugh Ross points out that technically the text does not indicate that the sun and moon came into being on the fourth day. Rather, the text only reports God saying “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.”[72] Furthermore, “Genesis 1 employs one set of verbs for the creation of birds, mammals, humans, and the universe. These verbs — baraasa, and yasar — mean ‘create,’ ‘make,’ and ‘fashion’ or ‘form,’ respectively. Another verb, haya, means ‘exist, be, happen, or come to pass’ and is used in conjunction with the appearance of ‘light’ on day one and of the ‘lights in the expanse of the sky’ on day four.”[73] Ross suggests that this is “consistent with the creation week’s start point at the advent of light on Earth’s surface — that divinely orchestrated moment when light first penetrated the opaque medium enshrouding the primordial planet.”[74] Ross further contends that on the fourth day “God transformed Earth’s atmosphere from translucent to transparent. At that time, the Sun, Moon, and stars became visible from Earth’s surface as distinct light sources.”[75] I am not convinced by this proposal, since it seems to run into the problem of photosynthetic plants being starved of light for a significant portion of earth’s history.

An alternative scenario, proposed by C. John Collins, I find to be more attractive. Collins notes that the Hebrew verb used in Genesis 1:16, יַּ֣עַשׂ (“asa”), meaning “to make”, “does not specifically mean ‘create’; it can refer to that, but it can also refer to ‘working on something that is already there’ (hence ESV margin), or even ‘appointed.’”[76] He thus argues that “Verse 14 focuses on the function of the lights rather than on their origin: the verb let there be is completed with the purpose clause, ‘to separate.’ Hence, the account of this day’s work focuses on these lights serving a function that God appointed for the well-being of man — and that they serve that function by God’s command, which implies that it is foolish to worship them.”[77]

Besides the issue of the sun, moon and stars not being brought in until day four (which I think is satisfactorily resolved by Collins), I do not see any further chronological incompatibilities between the account in Genesis 1 and the scientific evidence.

However, if one were not persuaded by either Ross’ or Collins’ proposal, would a valid alternative approach be to postulate that the ‘days’ of creation are arranged without regard to chronology? I will now consider this question.

Many have noted that days one to three form a triad that corresponds to the triad formed by days four to six. On day one, God creates the light and distinguishes it from darkness; whereas on day four, God creates the sun, moon and stars. On day two, God separates the sky and sea; whereas, on day five, God creates birds and sea creatures. On day three, God causes dry land to appear; whereas on day six, God creates the land animals and humans. This pattern has been argued by some to indicate that the exact chronological sequence of events is not in mind here. This observation forms the basis of the literary framework view, first put forward by Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803).[78] Mark Throntveit likewise argues that this structural organization of the text suggests that the sequence of days are not intended to express chronological sequence at all.[79] However, as many have rightly pointed out in response to this argument, literary framework and chronological sequence are not necessarily mutually exclusive.[80]

Another argument for taking the days to be arranged a-chronologically are the supposed contradictions between the sequence of events described in Genesis 1 and 2. I have already addressed one of those by showing that Genesis 2 focuses in on a particular geographical region. The other contradiction that is sometimes alleged is that Genesis 2:19 indicates that the creation of animals took place after mankind was on the scene, as suggested by some translations. However, Collins argues that the Hebrew verb ought to be rendered by the pluperfect “had formed”, which resolves this problem.[81]

Nonetheless, it must be recognized that the ancients did not always narrate chronologically. Sometimes they narrated events a-chronologically (though, it must be noted, without using chronological markers such as “the following day”). For example, in the temptation of Christ, which is narrated in Matthew 4 and Luke 4, the two accounts do not recount the three temptations in the same order. Matthew connects the events using the word Τότε (meaning “then”), whereas Luke connects events using the word Καὶ (meaning “and”). For this reason, I am inclined to believe that Matthew represents the events in chronological order, while Luke represents them a-chronologically. Thus, key to determining whether Genesis 1 commits its readers to interpreting it to be a chronological account of events is elucidating whether there are any concrete chronological markers in the text that would lead its original audience to believe that a sequential succession of events is being described.

In 1996, David A. Sterchi published a paper in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. In this paper, he argued that while the structure and syntax of Genesis 1 does not exclude chronological sequencing, it also does not require it.[82] He points out that the first five creation days lack a definite article, though days six and seven both have a definite article. Thus, these phrases are most appropriately translated “one day . . . a second day . . . a third day . . . a fourth day . . . a ˜fifth day.” Sterchi suggests that “the text is not implying a chronological sequence of seven days. Instead it is simply presenting a list of seven days.”[83] Furthermore, he argues that “On the one hand was a commitment to the truth in reporting the account in the text. On the other was the desire to use a literary structure to further reinforce his message. One way to achieve literary freedom and still maintain truth in the process was to remove the confines of chronological syntax. So the author chose to leave the days indefinite and used the article in days six and seven for emphasis, not determination.”[84]

If the events are being narrated a-chronologically, is there any plausible hypothesis for why the creation of the sun and moon is not mentioned until day four? I believe there is. Johnny Miller and John Soden point out that the order of events between the Genesis creation account and that of the Egyptians is strikingly similar, though there are key differences, one being that the appearance of the sun is the initial and main event in the Egyptian creation myth, whereas the sun is held back until day four in the Biblical account.[85] They note that, “The issue is not so much the change in order (it is still the same, except for the appearance of plant life). Rather the use of the ‘week’ in creation instead of a single day delays the event of the sunrise from the first morning to the fourth day. The sun is no longer the dominant force or king over the gods (even though it was to “rule the day”; Gen. 1:16). The sun is just another of God’s submissive creations, doing his bidding and serving his will. The resulting picture dramatically downplays the sun, Egypt’s main actor. Instead, God clearly shines as the sovereign and transcendent ruler of creation. The climax becomes the creation of mankind as God’s representative.”[86] Relating to this motif also is the omission of names for the sun and moon, which were revered as deities by the Egyptians — these celestial bodies instead are referred to as “the greater light” and “the lesser light”.

Summary

To conclude, one cannot, in my judgment, hold to the creation ‘days’ being a series of six consecutive solar days while rejecting a young earth interpretation. While Sailhamer and Walton, among others, have attempted to do this, my assessment of their respective approaches is that they fail to harmonize this interpretation with an old earth. Furthermore, the Genesis account says nothing about the age of the Universe or the earth, since those are created before the commence of the first day of creation week. Thus, the only question that should be under evaluation is the age of the biosphere. Moreover, there are some clues in the text of Genesis 1 that are consistent with the creation week being longer than our regular weeks. One can harmonize the text of Genesis 1 with an old earth interpretation by positing the presence of gaps between each of the ‘days’ or by positing that the ‘days’ are not literal. The analogical days interpretation suggested by Collins and others is the most plausible non-literal interpretation of the days. While the structure and syntax of the passage is consistent with the days being chronologically arranged, it does not require it.

Footnotes

[1] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), 570–571.

[2] John Sailhamer, Genesis Unbound: A Provoscative New Look at the Creation Account (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 1996), kindle.

[3] John Piper, “What Should We Teach About Creation?” Desiring God, June 1, 2010 (http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-should-we-teach-about-creation)

[4] Mark Driscoll, Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe (Wheaton, IL, Crossway, 2011), 96

[5] Matt Chandler, The Explicit Gospel (Wheaton, IL, Crossway, 2012), 96-97

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009).

[14] Ibid., 91

[15] Ibid., 64

[16] Ibid., 92

[17] Ibid., 170.

[18] Ibid., 42.

[19] John C. Lennox, Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning according to Genesis and Science (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 132.

[20] Lydia McGrew, “Review of John H. Walton’s The Lost World of Genesis One,” What’s Wrong with the World, March 12, 2015. http://whatswrongwiththeworld.net/2015/03/review_of_john_h_waltons_the_l.html

[21] John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009), 98.

[22] Ibid., 96.

[23] Ibid., 24.

[24] Ibid., 41.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Ibid.

[27] C. John Collins, “Review of John Walton, The Lost World Of Genesis One,” Reformed Academic, May 22, 2013.

[28] Michael Jones, “Genesis 1a: And God Said!” Inspiring Philosophy, June 7, 2019, YouTube video, 22:42, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R24WZ4Hvytc

[29] Ibid.

[30] John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009), 30.

[31] Ibid., 32.

[32] Ibid.

[33] Bruce Waltke, “The Creation Account in Genesis 1:1–3, Part III: The Initial Chaos Theory and the Precreation Chaos Theory,” Bibliotheca Sacra 132 (July–September 1975), 216–228.

[34] C. John Collins, Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2011), kindle.

[35] John Sailhamer, Genesis Unbound: A Provoscative New Look at the Creation Account (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 1996), kindle.

[36] Ibid.

[37] Bruce Waltke, “The Creation Account in Genesis 1:1–3, Part III: The Initial Chaos Theory and the Precreation Chaos Theory,” Bibliotheca Sacra 132 (July–September 1975), 216–228.

[38] Ibid.

[39] Ibid.

[40] Ibid.

[41] C. John Collins, Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2011).

[42] Ibid.

[43] The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) opts for this translation.

[44] C. John Collins, Reading Genesis Well: Navigating History, Poetry, Science, and Truth in Genesis 1–11 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 160–161.

[45] Ibid., 161.

[46] Hugh Ross, A Matter of Days: Resolving a Creation Controversy (San Francisco, CA: RTB Press, 2015), 74.

[47] Jonathan Sarfati, Refuting Compromise: A Biblical and Scientific Refutation of “Progressive Creationism” (Billions of Years) As Popularized by Astronomer Hugh Ross (Creation Book Publishers; 2nd edition, 2011), kindle.

[48] C. John Collins, Science & Faith: Friends or Foes? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2003), 62.

[49] Ibid., 84-85.

[50] Ibid., 85.

[51] Ibid.

[52] Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo, The Confessions of St. Augustine, trans. E. B. Pusey (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996)

[53] C. John Collins, Science & Faith: Friends or Foes? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2003), 85.

[54] Ibid., 87.

[55] Ibid.

[56] Ibid., 88.

[57] Ibid.

[58] Ibid., 89.

[59] Ibid.

[60] John C. Lennox, Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 54.

[61] C. John Collins, Science & Faith: Friends or Foes? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2003), 90.

[62] Ibid., 89.

[63] Ibid., 86.

[64] Ibid.

[65] Ibid.

[66] John H. Walton, Genesis, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 148.

[67] Ibid.

[68] Ibid.

[69] Michael Fishbane, Text and Texture (New York: Schocken, 1979).

[70] John H. Walton, Genesis, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 149.

[71] G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God, ed. D. A. Carson, vol. 17, New Studies in Biblical Theology (Downers Grove, IL; England: InterVarsity Press; Apollos, 2004), 61.

[72] Hugh Ross, A Matter of Days: Resolving a Creation Controversy (San Francisco, CA: RTB Press, 2015), 80-82.

[73] Ibid., 82.

[74] Ibid.

[75] Ibid.

[76] C. John Collins, Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2011), kindle.

[77] Ibid.

[78] Johann Gottfried von Herder, The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, trans. James Marsh (Burlington, Ontario: Edward Smith, 1833), 1:58. See also Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1–15, Word Biblical Commentary (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1987), 6–7.

[79] Mark Throntveit, “Are the Events in the Genesis Account Set Forth in Chronological Order? No,” The Genesis Debate (ed. R. Youngblood; Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1986) 36–55.

[80] John C. Lennox, Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning according to Genesis and Science (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011),

[81] C. John Collins, “The Wayyiqtol as ‘Pluperfect’: When and Why?” Tyndale Bulletin 46, no. 1 (1995): 117–40.

[82] David A. Sterchi, “Does Genesis 1 Provide a Chronological Sequence?” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (December 1996), 529-536.

[83] Ibid.

[84] Ibid.

[85] Johnny V. Miller and John M. Soden, In the Beginning … We Misunderstood: Interpreting Genesis 1 in Its Original Context (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2012), 106.

[86] Ibid.

Recommended resources related to the topic:

How Old is the Universe? (DVD), (Mp3), and (Mp4 Download) by Dr. Frank Turek 

What is God Like? Look to the Heavens by Dr. Frank Turek (DVD and Mp4

How to Interpret Your Bible by Dr. Frank Turek DVD Complete Series, INSTRUCTOR Study Guide, and STUDENT Study Guide

 

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Dr. Jonathan McLatchie is a Christian writer, international speaker, and debater. He holds a Bachelor’s degree (with Honors) in forensic biology, a Masters’s (M.Res) degree in evolutionary biology, a second Master’s degree in medical and molecular bioscience, and a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology. Currently, he is an assistant professor of biology at Sattler College in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. McLatchie is a contributor to various apologetics websites and is the founder of the Apologetics Academy (Apologetics-Academy.org), a ministry that seeks to equip and train Christians to persuasively defend the faith through regular online webinars, as well as assist Christians who are wrestling with doubts. Dr. McLatchie has participated in more than thirty moderated debates around the world with representatives of atheism, Islam, and other alternative worldview perspectives. He has spoken internationally in Europe, North America, and South Africa promoting an intelligent, reflective, and evidence-based Christian faith.

Original Blog Source: https://cutt.ly/rvzuz7M

 

By Luke Nix

While We All Want to Believe That We Are Committed to Truth Rather Than A Narrative, Our Actions In Conversation—How We Mistreat Evidence, Mischaracterize Opposing Views And Arguments, And Attack The Challenger Rather Than The Challenge—Often Tell A Different Story.” Luke Nix

The Importance of Recognizing Common Ground

In these times of stark division, it is important that we not allow our disagreements to ultimately result in the destruction of our unity as a society, culture, and Church. There is nothing wrong with a society having a diversity of ideas, as long as those ideas are discussed and debated respectfully. When the wrong ideas are identified, such a respectful dialog can result in the dismissal of false ideas and the acceptance of true ideas. This is progress. Progress towards the objective goal of a society that has and lives according to the view of reality as it actually is and not some delusion.

However, many times discussion is stifled because we do not recognize common ground with those in which we disagree. When we possess and recognize common ground, we have a connection to maintain a healthy relationship when we have stark disagreements and rigorously debate which view (if either) accurately reflect reality. Today I want to point out six different things that we all hold in common that, if recognized by even one side, can help keep relationships healthy despite disagreements.

The Image of God

We are all created in the Image of God, thus we are all intrinsically, equally valuable. No matter how strongly we disagree with the other person, they ultimately have just as much value as we do and are worthy of our love and respect. No matter how disrespectful or unloving they are in their discussion or behavior towards us or others, this value remains in tact and stands as a reminder to us that a disrespectful or unloving posture towards them is never justified. We must remember that behind every challenge is a challenger. The challenge must be dealt with logically and evidentially, but the challenger must be addressed lovingly and respectfully.

Our Sinfulness

We are all sinners that have fallen short of God’s objective, moral standard, thus there will be evil committed by people against people. While we are all created in God’s Image and possess intrinsic and equal value, this does not mean that any of us is perfect. People will offend us. We will offend others. People will deeply hurt us, and we will deeply hurt others. People will sin against us, and, yes, we will sin against others. It is important to recognize that we will all fail and must treat each other, even those with whom we disagree, with the grace and forgiveness that we would like to be treated  when we sin. And if we expect others to humbly accept correction, then we must also humbly accept correction when we make mistakes.

Christ’s Forgiveness

We are all sinful, but we are all loved by our morally perfect Creator. Jesus died and rose from the dead so that all people could receive the forgiveness necessary so that we can spend eternity with our Creator and each other. We are all in this same boat. No person needs Christ’s forgiveness any more or less than another; no person deserves Christ’s forgiveness any more or less than another, but every person must accept Christ’s forgiveness. We are all equally in need of forgiveness, and as long as we are still alive, Christ’s forgiveness is available. Thus we should never condemn another to hell because of their current worldview or moral position. Rather we should prayerfully pursue persuasion with evidence, logic, love, gentleness, and respect.

Our Fear

Our fear of being wrong and how changing a view may impact our other views and relationships. Many times when we are presenting evidence for a conclusion that someone opposes, it is not necessarily the evidence that the other person finds lacking but rather the possible implications of changing their mind. Some undesirable implications are perceived to be logical, and we must show either how the perceived implications do not logically follow (thus are not logically required to be consistent) or are not what they seem. Other undesired implications can be relational, and we must compassionately encourage those who may suffer severed or damaged relationships for accepting what is demonstrated to be true. We must remember our own experiences with these fears and patiently guide others while, of course, keeping the above common ground in mind because they may actually be doing the same for us while we may be the ones with these fears.

Our Questions and Doubts

We do not know everything, nor can we know everything. The same goes for everyone else. We will all have doubts and questions that we think must be answered before we can change our view. But not every little question and challenge can be answered about every view that we discuss. That is okay because not every question or challenge, if not answered the way we want or expect, presents a defeater for the view we’re questioning. Just as we expect others to consider the evidence that we present for our view and honestly consider if their questions or challenges truly undermine our evidence, we must be willing to engage in those considerations of their evidence and our questions as well. If we expect others to consider if they are just offering excuses to avoid changing their mind, we must be willing to demand the same of ourselves.

Our Choice

Finally, we all have the choice to either defend our narrative, or we can defend what is true about this world. We must choose to be committed to what is true, no matter the cost to ourselves; or we must be committed to what we want, no matter the cost to others. No doubt, it is objectively true that a commitment to truth, sacrificing self, is noble; and a commitment to self, sacrificing others, is despicable. Making this choice takes honesty, humility, and self-reflection, and frankly it can be a struggle. While we all want to believe that we are committed to truth rather than a narrative, our actions in conversation—how we mistreat evidence, mischaracterize opposing views and arguments, and attack the challenger rather than the challenge—often tell a different story. It is definitely true that “actions speak louder than words,” and it is time that we recognize that we must not merely apply that to others but to ourselves as well. As we struggle through this decision and recall the struggle, we can be more patient with and offer encouragement to those who are currently in the middle of the struggle.

Remembering that we hold much common ground with those we disagree with, often struggling in the past or in the present, and knowing that we desire gentleness and respect in those struggles, it is a most reasonable and loving expectation that we treat them as we wish for them to treat us. We should never be cold in our conversations; emotional warmth is necessary. Wisely conducting our conversations in the context of our common ground allows us to turn up the heat on the issues without burning the person behind the questions.

Recommended resources related to the topic:

Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions by Greg Koukl (Book)

Defending the Faith on Campus by Frank Turek (DVD Set, mp4 Download set, and Complete Package)

 

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Luke Nix holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and works as a Desktop Support Manager for a local precious metal exchange company in Oklahoma.

Original Blog Source: https://cutt.ly/0vfKPOY

 

By David Pallmann

Many Christians believe that it is wrong to offer unbelievers evidence for the truth of Christianity.[1] They argue that the traditional method of apologetics dishonors Scripture by not giving it the respect it is due. The concern is that offering evidence for the truth of Scripture gives evidence more weight than Scripture. The argument might be framed this way:

  1. If some activity requires us to treat something as a higher authority than Scripture, as Christians, we should not do it.
  2. Giving evidence for the truth of Scripture requires us to treat evidence as a higher authority than Scripture.
  3. Therefore, as Christians, we should not give evidence for the truth of Scripture.

Michael Krueger expresses the basic sentiment when he says,

“If the method of argumentation communicates to the unbeliever that he should believe the Bible only because it has received the stamp of approval from science, archaeology, and historical criticism, those disciplines, not the Bible, will be his ultimate authority.”[2]

In this article, I hope to show that the traditional apologist can answer this type of argument in a two-fold fashion. Once we clearly understand what it means to say that Scripture is one’s highest authority, it will become clear that this belief is not in conflict with presenting evidence for the truth of Scripture. In short, traditional, evidence-based, apologetics is harmonious with the affirmation that Scripture is the Christian’s highest authority.

Two Types of Authority

It will be helpful to begin by distinguishing between two types of authority. The Polish philosopher Józef Maria Bocheński made an important distinction between deontic authority and epistemic authority.[3] A deontic authority is roughly an authority which is able to tell you how you should act. Examples would include your boss or a police officer. These are individuals who can, to some extent, tell you what to do.

An epistemic authority is quite different. Epistemic authorities can tell you what you should believe. Examples would include a scholar, a doctor, or some other sort of expert. These are knowledgeable individuals who can be appropriately called “authorities” in their respective fields.

The key distinction between a deontic authority and an epistemic authority lies in the domains over which they exert their authority. Deontic authorities tell you how to behave. Epistemic authorities tell you what to believe.

Applying the Distinction

Armed with an understanding of these two types of authority, let’s explicate what it means to say that Scripture is our highest authority. It seems quite evident that this typically refers to Scripture as a deontic authority. To say that Scripture is one’s highest authority is, in essence, to say that one ought to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). Scripture will dictate a Christian’s behavior even when Scripture conflicts with another authority (e.g the government).

Thus construed, it becomes evident that the original argument is guilty of equivocation. Premise 1 refers to deontic authority while premise 2 refers to epistemic authority. As such, under a deontic understanding of Scripture as one’s highest authority, the conclusion of the argument simply doesn’t follow.

Scripture as an Epistemic Authority

Although on a deontic conception of Scriptural authority, the argument is flawed, there is one complication. Scripture does not merely tell us how to act, but it also tells us what to believe. Thus, while it is true that Scripture is a deontic authority, it also appears to function as an epistemic authority. Should we regard Scripture as our highest epistemic authority as well?

To answer this question, we need a clearer understanding of the role that epistemic authorities play in the formation of justified beliefs. In the first place, we need to observe that beliefs which are held on the basis of epistemic authorities inherently have weaker justification than beliefs held on the basis of evidence. This is because, when information is gained via authority, there is a further link in the chain between the believer and the truth of the belief. When one believes a proposition on the basis of evidence, then his connection to the truth of the belief is much stronger. When one relies on an epistemic authority, they are trusting the authority to accurately relay his own beliefs which (hopefully!) are based on a body of evidence to which the believer does not have direct access. The indirectness of the belief allows more opportunities for mistakes to be made. So whenever a belief is held on the basis of an authority, it necessarily has a lower probability of being true than a belief based directly on evidence. The upshot here is that epistemic authorities are not valuable because of anything intrinsic to that authority. They are valuable because they are a means of connecting us with truth. Epistemic authorities are only useful insofar as they achieve that goal. As Richard Feldmen observes,

“Inferential rules aren’t good ones simply because experts use them. Rather, experts are good guides to good rules simply because they have the best insight into the matter.”[4]

Now, none of that is meant to disparage the importance and value of epistemic authorities. Clearly, we cannot become acquainted with all the relevant evidence for every possible belief. Epistemic authorities, therefore, provide us with a convenient way of gaining knowledge about something without examining it in detail. The cost of that convenience, however, is that one incurs a greater risk that their acquired belief is not true.

To minimize this risk, it is crucial that we have good reasons for regarding an authority as reliable. If there were no way for recognizing an authority as reliable then we would either have to blindly follow anything that claimed to be an authority, make an arbitrary selection about which authorities to believe, or else reject epistemic authorities altogether. As John DePoe notes,

“Authorities play a valuable epistemic role because they are avenues for justified beliefs and knowledge that are inaccessible to us without them, or they make the procurement of such epistemic good more convenient. … Importantly, however, for me to embrace [an] authority justifiably, I must have good reasons to trust the source as an authority in the domains where I regard it as an authority.”[5]

So it is not possible, in principle, to have a highest epistemic authority if this is meant to be understood as an authority being one’s primary source of knowledge. A subject must always choose to believe what an authority says. And to make an informed decision about which authorities to believe, one needs access to independent evidence.

Highest Epistemic Authority

As the above discussion makes clear, evidence has primacy when it comes to justification. There is no highest epistemic authority comparable to a highest deontic authority. It is by means of evidence that we adjudicate between various epistemic authorities and determine which one’s are to be trusted. This is not to deny that there can be a highest epistemic authority from among a range of authorities. For example, suppose I have a medical condition which two doctors wish to diagnose. One doctor has only examined my condition superficially while the other has examined me thoroughly. Both doctors are authorities, but the one who has examined me thoroughly is the higher authority, and, as such his diagnosis will be taken more seriously. In this situation, I could be said to have a highest epistemic authority. However, notice that the word “highest” is being used in a comparative and contextual sense. I regard one authority as highest from among other authorities with respect to a specific topic. In the same way, the Christian can make Scripture his highest authority from among other authorities (pastors, theologians, etc.) with respect to the nature, will, character, and revelation of God. Thus, there is a sense in which Scripture can be considered a highest epistemic authority when this is meant to be understood as an authority among others which is given the most epistemic weight.

But since evidence is required to adjudicate between competing authority claims, it retains an epistemic priority over any authority. Notice, however, that this entails that evidence is not itself an authority. Thus, under this conception of evidence and authority, the second premise of the original argument is false. It confuses justification with authority. While authorities can play a justificatory role, not all justification comes in the form of authorities. If it did, we would be without justification for trusting any purported authority as such.

A Final Consideration

It seems to me that Christians who use this sort of argument mean something rather different by “highest authority” than I specified above. They don’t mean that Scripture is merely their highest epistemic authority from among a range of authorities about some particular subject. They appear to mean that Scripture should actually be our primary source of knowledge. To make belief in Scripture conditional upon sufficient evidence does indeed admit that Scripture is not one’s primary source of knowledge.

But I don’t see why this should be a concern for the traditional apologist. Having faith in an authority on the basis of evidence does not compromise that authority’s status nor does it somehow make evidence a “higher authority” in any meaningful sense. It is simply to acknowledge that one needs justification for believing that an authority is authoritative. Perhaps some will find this objectionable. But what is the alternative? To believe on the basis of nothing? This is epistemic irresponsibility. Moreover, it seems impossible. For surely before one can believe the teachings of Scripture, one must become acquainted with them through either hearing or reading Scripture. This shows that Scripture cannot be one’s primary source of knowledge.

If the critic still wishes to maintain that the traditional apologist is making evidence a higher authority than Scripture, then we may simply respond that he has equated “highest authority” with “primary source of knowledge.” This is a definition of “authority” that the traditional apologist is entitled to reject. If the critic still wishes to retain this definition of the word, then it is evident, I think, that he is deliberately defining words in such a way that he can accuse those who dispute his conclusions of lowering the status of Scripture. In this case, he is deliberately muddying the waters. Under the critic’s definition, the traditional apologist need feel no discomfort for not making Scripture his “highest authority.” The critic is now using this term to get the traditional apologist to say something which the traditional apologist never believed.

Summary and Conclusion

In this article, I have briefly outlined an objection to traditional apologetics which states that the traditional method turns evidence into a higher authority than Scripture. We have seen that the traditional apologist may give a two-fold response. First, he may respond by stating that he takes Scripture to be his highest deontic authority, but not necessarily his highest epistemic authority. If the critic replies by pointing out that Scripture is also an epistemic authority, the traditional apologist may reply by saying that epistemic authorities are limited in scope to specific topics. Thus, while he may well regard Scripture as his highest epistemic authority with respect to truths about God, he need not regard it as his highest epistemic authority with respect to the belief that Scripture yields accurate information about God. Moreover, he may argue that evidence does not function as an epistemic authority but rather functions as a means of recognizing an authority as such. Obviously, if evidence is not a type of authority, then it cannot be a higher authority than Scripture.

I conclude, therefore, that once we have clarified what is meant by “the authority of Scripture,” arguments such as that offered in the introduction either equivocate, are insensitive to the nature of epistemic authorities, or else mistake all justification for being a type of authority. In each case, the argument fails to establish its conclusion. Hence, the traditional apologist may confidently present evidence for the truth of Scripture without thereby sacrificing the authority of Scripture.

Notes:

[1] In particular I have presuppositionalists in mind. However, similar arguments can be found among critics of apologetics more generally. Such arguments are, by no means, limited to presuppositionalists.

[2] Michael J. Krueger, “The Sufficiency of Scripture in Apologetics,” TMSJ 12/1 (Spring 2001) Pg. 69-87

[3] J. M. Bocheński, The Logic of Religion, New York: New York University Press, 1965, Pg. 164-167

[4] Richard Feldman, “Authoritarian Epistemology,” in Earl Conee and Richard Feldman, Evidentialism, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004, Pg. 127

[5] John M. DePoe, “A Classical Evidentialist Response to Covenantal Epistemology,” in Debating Christian Religious Epistemology, New York, NY: Bloomsbury, 2020, Pg. 167-168

Recommended resources related to the topic:

Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels by J. Warner Wallace (Book)

The New Testament: Too Embarrassing to Be False by Frank Turek (MP3) and (DVD)

Why We Know the New Testament Writers Told the Truth by Frank Turek (mp4 Download)

The Top Ten Reasons We Know the NT Writers Told the Truth mp3 by Frank Turek

Counter Culture Christian: Is the Bible True? by Frank Turek (Mp3), (Mp4), and (DVD)    

 

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David Pallmann is a student at Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary. He is also a member of the Society of Evangelical Arminians and directs the YouTube Apologetics ministry Faith Because of Reason.

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