Systematic Theology--Chapter 15

Full disclosure--  I did not enjoy this chapter (mostly the second half). Probably shouldn't admit that, but there you have it. So many differing opinions from so many people much smarter than me, and I found myself thinking, "Why can't we all just admit there is much on these topics about which the Bible is not precise? We're not God. It's ok for some mysteries to remain mysteries." I got extremely bogged down many times struggling through this chapter. Having said that, my "re-cap" here is merely that--highlights from the text to record here so that I might re-visit these thoughts if my studies bring me to this topic further down the road. SO--I'm not supporting any one view or looking for arguments. Just a little disclaimer before I start this massive post. . .

Creation
Why, how, and when did God create the universe?

God created the entire universe out of nothing; it was originally very good; and he created it to glorify himself.

A. God Created the Universe Out of Nothing

   1. Biblical Evidence for Creation out of Nothing

• Genesis 1:1
• Psalm 33:6, 9
• John 1:3
• Colossians 1:16
• Revelation 4:11
• Acts 4:24
• Acts 17:24-25
• Hebrews 11:3
• Because God created the entire universe out of nothing, there is no matter in the universe that is eternal.
• Psalm 90:2-- Before the mountains were brought forth,
      or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
      from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
• This reminds us that God rules over all the universe and that nothing in creation is to be worshiped instead of God or in addition to him.
• Were we to deny creation out of nothing, we would have to say that some matter has always existed and is eternal like God. This idea would challenge God's independence, his sovereignty, and the fact that worship is due to him alone.

   2. The Creation of the Spiritual Universe

• Nehemiah 9:6
• Colossians 1:16
• These verses explicitly affirm the creation of invisible heavenly beings.

   3. The Direct Creation of Adam and Eve

• God created Adam and Eve in a special, personal way.
• Genesis 2:7
• Genesis 2:21-22
• As we will see throughout this chapter, Christians differ on the extent to which evolutionary development may have occurred after creation, perhaps (according to some) leading to the development of more and more complex organisms. While there are sincerely held differences on that question among some Christians with respect to the plant and animal kingdoms, these texts are so explicit that it would be very difficult for someone to hold to the complete truthfulness of Scripture and still hold that human beings are the result of a long evolutionary process.

   4. The Creation of Time

• This is more fully discussed in Chapter 11 regarding God's attribute of eternity.
• When we speak of God's existence "before" the creation of the world, we should not think of God as existing in an unending extension of time. Rather, God's eternity means that he has a different kind of existence, an existence without the passage of time, a kind of existence that is difficult for us to even imagine.
• The fact that God created time reminds us of his lordship over it and our obligation to use it for his glory.

   5. The Work of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in Creation

• These passages give a consistent picture of the Son as the active agent carrying out the plans and directions of the Father.
• John 1:3
• 1 Corinthians 8:6
• Colossians 1:16
• Hebrews 1:2
• The Holy Spirit's Involvement
• Genesis 1:2
• Job 33:4

B. Creation is Distinct From God Yet Always Dependent on God

• God is "transcendent," meaning he is far "above" the creation in the sense that he is greater than the creation and he is independent of it.
• God is also immanent, meaning "remaining in" creation. He is very much involved in creation, for it is dependent upon him for its existence and its functioning.
• Colossians 1:17
• Hebrews 1:3
• Ephesians 4:6
• Challenges to this idea:
• Materialism--complete lack of belief in God. This view holds that the material universe is all there is. Christians today who focus almost the entire effort of their lives on earning more money and acquiring more possessions become "practical" materialists in their activity, since their lives would not be much different if they did not believe in God at all.
• Pantheism--the idea that everything, the whole universe, is God, or is part of God. This view denies several essential aspects of God's character. For instance, according to this view, God would no longer be unchanging since the universe clearly changes regularly. Also, God would no longer be holy since the evil in the universe would also be part of him.
• Dualism--the idea that both God and the material universe have eternally existed side by side. This philosophy denies both God's ultimate lordship over creation and also that creation came about because of God's will, that it is to be used solely for his purposes, and that it is to glorify him.
• Deism--the view that God is not now directly involved in the creation. This view recognizes God's transcendence but not his immanence; that is, God had the power to create the world, but then he left it to run on its own. This view denies almost the entire history of the Bible, which is the story of God's active involvement in the world. Many nominal Christians today are, in effect, practical deists, since they live lives almost totally devoid of genuine prayer, worship, fear of God, or daily interaction with him.

C. God Created the Universe to Show His Glory

• Isaiah 43:7--everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.
• Psalm 19:1-2--The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
• Revelation 4:11--Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.

D. The Universe God Created Was "Very Good"

• Though the created order can be used in sinful or selfish ways and can turn our affections away from God, nonetheless we must not let the danger of the abuse of God's creation keep us from a positive, thankful, joyful use of it for our own enjoyment and for the use of his kingdom.
• Yet we are to remember that material possessions are only temporary, not eternal. We are to set our hopes on God and on receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

E. The Relationship Between Scripture and the Findings of Modern Science

   1. When All the Facts Are Rightly Understood, There Will Be "No Final Conflict" Between Scripture and Natural Science

• In his book No Final Conflict, Francis Schaeffer lists several areas where, in his judgment, there is room for disagreement among Christians who believe in the total truthfulness of Scripture.
• There is a possibility that God created a "grown-up" universe.
• There is a possibility of a break between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 or between 1:2 and 1:3.
• There is a possibility of a long day in Genesis 1.
• There is a possibility that the flood affected the geological data.
• The use of the word "kinds" in Genesis 1 may be quite broad.
• There is a possibility of the death of animals before the fall.
• Where the Hebrew word bara' is not used, there is the possibility of sequence from previously existing things.
• Schaeffer makes it clear that he is not saying that any of those positions is his own; only that they are theoretically possible.
• Schaeffer's major point is that in both our understanding of the natural world and our understanding of Scripture, our knowledge is not perfect.
• But we can approach both scientific and biblical study with the confidence that when all the facts are correctly understood, and when we have understood Scripture rightly, our findings will never be in conflict with each other; there will be "no final conflict." This is because God, who speaks in Scripture, knows all facts, and he has not spoken in a way that would contradict any true fact in the universe.
• This is a very helpful perspective with which the Christian should begin any study of creation and modern science. We should not fear scientific investigation; rather, we should pursue it with the confidence that when all facts are understood rightly, it will never contradict Scripture.
• Scripture says that our understanding of some "scientific" facts is a matter of faith. (Hebrews 11:3--By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.)

   2. Some Theories About Creation Seem Clearly Inconsistent With the Teachings of Scripture

      a. Secular Theories--A "secular" theory is any theory of the origin of the universe that does not see an infinite-personal God as responsible for creating the universe by intelligent design. Thus, the "big bang" theory (in a secular form in which God is excluded), or any theories that hold that matter has always existed, would be inconsistent with the teaching of Scripture that God created the universe out of nothing, and that he did so for his own glory.

      b. Theistic Evolution

• Ever since the publication of Charles Darwin's book Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859), some Christians have proposed that living organisms came about by the process of evolution that Darwin proposed, but that God guided that process so that the result was just what he wanted it to be.
• This view is called theistic evolution because it advocates belief in God (it is "theistic") and in evolution too.
• Many who hold to theistic evolution would propose that God intervened in the process at some crucial points, usually--
• the creation of matter at the beginning
• the creation of the simplest life form
• the creation of man
• Aside from these points of intervention, theistic evolutionists would argue that evolution is the process God decided to use in allowing all of the other forms of life on earth to develop.
• Objections to theistic evolution are as follows:
• The clear teaching of Scripture that there is purposefulness in God's work of creation seems incompatible with the randomness demanded by evolutionary theory.
• When Scripture reports that God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds" (Gen. 1:24), it pictures God as doing things intentionally and with a purpose for each thing he does.
• This, of course, is the opposite of allowing mutations to proceed entirely randomly.
• The fundamental difference between a biblical view of creation and theistic evolution lies here: the driving force that brings about change and the development of new species in all evolutionary schemes is randomness. But the driving force in the development of new organisms according to Scripture is God's intelligent design. 
• Scripture pictures God's creative word as bringing immediate response.
• Psalm 33:6,9--By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
• This kind of statement seems incompatible with the idea that God spoke and then waited millions of years for random mutations to accomplish his spoken word.
• When Scripture tells us that God made plants and animals to reproduce "according to their kinds" (Gen. 1:11,24) it suggests that God was deliberate in his design of different types of plants and animals rather than content to leave the differentiation to the random process of evolution.
• God's present active role in creating or forming every living thing that now comes into being is hard to reconcile with the distant "hands off" kind of oversight of evolution that is proposed by theistic evolution.
• Psalm 139:13
• Exodus 4:11
• Psalm 104:14
• Matthew 6:30
• Matthew 6:26
• Psalm 104:21
• If God is so involved in causing the growth and development of every step of every living thing even now, it seems inconsistent with Scripture to say that these life forms were originally brought about by a random evolutionary process.
• The special creation of Adam, and Eve from him, is a strong reason to break with theistic evolution. We must realize that the special creation of Adam and Eve as recorded in Scripture shows them to be far different from the just barely human apelike creatures that evolutionists would say were the first humans. The possessed highly developed linguistic, moral, and spiritual abilities from the moment they were created.

      c. Notes on the Darwinian Theory of Evolution

• Current Challenges to Evolution:
• After more than 100 years of experimental breeding of various kinds of animals and plants, the amount of variation that can be produced (even with intentional, not random, breeding) is extremely limited, due to the limited range of genetic variation in each type of living thing.
• The vast and complex mutations required to produce complex organs such as an eye or a bird's wing (or hundreds of other organs) could not have occurred in tiny mutations accumulating over thousands of generations, because the individual parts of the organ are useless unless the entire organ is functioning. But the mathematical probability of such random mutations happening together in one generation is effectively zero. Darwinists are left saying that it must have happened because it happened.
• The fossil record was Darwin's greatest problem in 1859, and it has simply become a greater problem since then. Fossils are available for myriad kinds of plants and animals in the distant past, but no one has ever discovered fossils from "intermediate types" to fill in the gaps between distinct kinds of animals. In fact, many ancient fossils exactly resemble present-day animals, which directly contradicts the idea that these should be evolving or improving over time. In his time, Darwin thought the absence of "transitional types" of fossils was merely due to the fact that they hadn't yet been discovered. However, the subsequent 130 years of intensive archaeological activity has still failed to produce one convincing example of a needed transitional type, suggesting that they do not exist.
• Probably the greatest difficulty of all for evolutionary theory is explaining how any life could have begun in the first place. That a living organism emerged by chance from a pre-biotic soup is about as likely as that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein.
• The Destructive Influences of Evolutionary Theory in Modern Thought:
• If life, and human beings in particular, are not created by God or responsible to him, but are simply the result of random occurrences in the universe, then of what significance is human life?
• If the inevitable processes of natural selection continue to bring about improvement in life forms on earth through the survival of the fittest, then why should we hinder this process by caring for those who are weak and sick, or less able to defend themselves?
• If all of life can be explained by evolutionary theory apart from God, then there is no supreme Judge to hold us morally accountable and therefore no such thing as right or wrong.
• If the inevitable processes of natural selection continue to bring about an improvement in life forms on earth through the survival of the fittest, then why do we hinder this process by caring for those who are sick or weak or less able to defend themselves?

      d. The Theory of a "Gap" Between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2

• Some evangelicals have proposed that there is a gap of millions of years between Genesis 1:1 ("In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth") and Genesis 1:2 ("The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.") According to this theory, God made an earlier creation (about 4.5 billion years ago), but he destroyed it after a rebellion and then began a second creation in Genesis 1:2 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. 
• Arguments against this theory include the following:
• There isn't a single verse in Scripture which supports the idea of an earlier creation.
• In Genesis 1:31, when God finished his work of creation, we read, "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." According to the gap theory, God would have been looking at an earth full of the results of rebellion, conflict, and terrible divine judgment, in which case this statement would not make sense.
• Exodus 20:11 states that "in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them. . ." Whether we take these to be 24-hour days or longer periods of time, on either view the making of the entire heavens and earth and everything in them is put within these 6 days. The gap theory would indicate that much of the world was created before the 6 days began.
• This theory assumes that God's first attempt at creation was a failure. This, of course, is inconsistent with the Biblical picture of God and his nature.     

   3. The Age of the Earth: Some Preliminary Considerations
      a. There are Gaps in the Genealogies of the Bible

• Matthew 1:8-9 skips 3 generations between Uzziah and Jotham (compare to 1 Chronicles 3:10-12 for complete list)
• Matthew 1:20 calls Joseph "son of David." The word son here can be translated "descendant" since Joseph is not directly the son of David.

      b. The Age of the Human Race

• It is widely agreed that if the Cro-Magnon cave paintings have been dated correctly, man was on the earth at least by 10,000 BC. It is difficult to make any definitive conclusions prior to that.

      c. Did Animals Die Before the Fall?

• For young earth advocates, there is no need to ask this question since man and animals were created on the same day. It is likely that Adam and Eve's sin happened shortly thereafter, introducing death for man and animals.
• For old earth advocates, this is an important question. Scripture neither confirms nor denies explicitly. However, it remains a real possibility that animals could have died before the fall since Scriptures like Genesis 2:17 and Romans 5:12 specifically focus on the fall bringing the beginning of death to man with no mention of animals.

      d. What About Dinosaurs?

• Current scientific opinion holds that dinosaurs became extinct about 65 million years ago, millions of years before humans appeared on the earth.
• Young earth advocates holding to 6 24-hour days of creation would say that dinosaurs were created on the sixth day along with animals and man.
• Some old earth advocates believe that dinosaurs were among the creatures Adam named in Genesis 2:19-20 and that they likely perished in the flood.
• Other old earth advocates would say that the 6th "day" of creation was actually millions of years long and that dinosaurs were already extinct by the time man was created.

      e. Are the Six Days of Creation Twenty-four Hour Days?

• This is an ongoing debate among evangelicals, which is far from being settled decisively one way or another.
• Arguments in favor of viewing the 6 days as long periods of time:
• The Hebrew word yom, "day," is sometimes used to refer not to a 24-hour literal day, but to a longer period of time.
• Genesis 2:4--"In the day that the Lord God made the earth and heavens. . ." This phrase refers to the entire creative work of the 6 days of creation.
• Job 20:28
• Psalm 20:1
• Proverbs 11:4
• Proverbs 25:13
• Ecclesiastes 7:14
• Day 6 of the creation process seems to be far too "packed" to have occurred in only 24 hours
• creation of animals
• creation of man
• placing Adam in the garden and giving instructions to till and keep it
• giving Adam directions regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
• bringing all of the animals to Adam to be named
• finding no helper fit for Adam
• causing Adam's deep sleep
• creation of Eve from Adam's rib
• The seventh "day" is not concluded with the phrase "and there was evening and there was morning, a seventh day."
• The fact that the word "day" must refer to a longer period of time just a few verses later in the same narrative (Gen. 2:4) should caution us against making dogmatic statements.
• Arguments in favor of understanding "day" in Gen. 1 as a 24-hour day:
• The repeated phrase "And there was evening, and there was morning" seems to suggest the activities of each "day" taking place within the span of a 24-hour day.
• The third day of creation cannot be very long, because the sun does not come into being until the fourth day, and plants (created on the third day) cannot live long without the sun-light.
• It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that in the Ten Commandments the word day is used to mean 24 hours.
• Exodus 20:8-11
• When Jesus says, "But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.'" (Mark 10:6), he implies that Adam and Eve were not created billions of years after the beginning of creation, but at the very beginning of creation.

***Summary with respect to length of days: the possibility must be left open that God has chosen not to give us enough information to come to a clear decision on this question, and the real test of faithfulness to him may be the degree to which we can act charitably toward those who in good conscience and full belief in God's Word hold to a different position on this matter.

   4. Both "Old Earth" and "Young Earth" Theories are Valid Options for Christians Who Believe the Bible Today

      a. "Old Earth" Theories of Creation: viewpoints held by those who believe the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and the universe about 15 billion years old.

         1.Day-Age View:

• Many who believe that the earth is many millions of years old maintain that the days of Genesis 1 are extremely long "ages" of time. Considering all factors including the original Hebrew text, there is no conclusive argument to firmly disprove this position.
• Many have been attracted to this position because of scientific evidence regarding the age of the earth. Davis A. Young, a professional geologist and evangelical Christian concludes along with many other Christian geologists that there is overwhelming evidence that the earth is 4.5-4.7 billion years old. Some of Young's arguments include:
• radiometric dating (Many deny the accuracy of this method, claiming that the flood interfered with too many factors; however, Young notes that rocks from the moon and meteorites recently fallen to earth, which could not have been affected by the flood, return similar results)
• the time required for liquid magma to cool (about 1 million years for a large formation in southern California)
• the time and pressure required for the formation of many metamorphic rocks that contain small fossils
• continental drift (fossil-bearing rock fields near the coasts of Africa and South America were apparently previously joined together, then separated by continental drift, something that could not have happened in 20,000 years at the present rate of 2 centimeters per year)
• coral reefs (some of which apparently would have required hundreds of thousands of years of gradual deposits to attain their present state)
• Difficulties with the Day-Age view:
• The sequence of events in Genesis 1 does not exactly correspond to current scientific understanding of the development of life, which puts sea creatures (Day 5) before trees (Day 3) and insects and other land animals (Day 6), as well as fish (Day 5), before birds (Day 5).
• The greatest difficulty for this view is that it puts the sun, moon, and stars (Day 4) millions of years after the creation of plants and trees (Day 3).

         2. Literary Framework View:

• This view argues that the 6 days of Genesis 1 are not intended to indicate a chronological sequence of events, but are rather a literary "framework," which the author uses to teach us about God's creative activity. The framework is skillfully constructed so that the first three days and the second three days correspond to each other.

            *Days of Forming

               -Day 1: Light and darkness separated

               -Day 2: Sky and waters separated

               -Day 3: Dry land and seas separated, plants and trees

            *Days of Filling

               -Day 4: Sun, moon, and stars (lights in the heaven)

               -Day 5: Fish and birds

               -Day 6: Animals and man

• According to this "framework" view, these segments of activity aren't meant to inform us about sequence or length of time, but simply to represent all aspects of creation as being made by God and dwelling under God.
• Support for this hypothesis:
1. The neat correspondence between the pairs of days as listed above.
2. The fact that it avoids any conflict with modern science over the age of the earth and the age of living creatures (since no chronology at all is implied.)
3. The way it avoids the conflict of sequence between Genesis 1 and 2 in which man (Gen. 2:7) seems to be formed before plants (Gen. 2:8) and animals (Gen. 2:19), a sequence different from Genesis 1.
4. The fact that Genesis 2:5 shows that the "days" of creation were not literal 24-hour days, for it says that there were no plants on the earth because it had not yet rained, something that would not make sense in a 6-day creation, since plants can certainly survive 3 or 4 days without rain.
• Points against the framework theory:
1. The proposed correspondence between the days of creation isn't nearly as exact as its advocates have supposed. The sun, moon, and stars created on the fourth day are placed not in any space that was created on Day 1, but in the "firmament" that was created on the second day. Also, parallel between Days 2 and 5 is not exact, since on Day 5 the fish are commanded to "fill the waters in the seas" (Gen. 1:22), yet God does not gather the waters together and call them "seas" (Gen. 1:10) until Day 3. 
2. The lack of any commitment to specific chronology or timeframes seems to be more heavily rooted in convenience than in seeking direction from the text.
3. Those opposed to the framework theory would argue that there is no discrepancy between Genesis 1 and 2 since Genesis 2 implies no description of sequence but simply highlights certain events in the creation story.
4. Genesis 2:5: "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,. . ."  This does not really mean that plants were not yet on the earth because the earth was too dry to support them. Nor does it mean that plants were missing because no man had yet tilled the earth. It is simply explaining that God's creation was not yet complete.
5. The strongest argument against this view is that the whole of Genesis 1 strongly suggests a chronological sequence, complete with Days numbered 1-7, just as we experience time now.
6. A sequence of days is also implied in God's command to human beings to imitate his pattern of work plus rest: Exodus 20:8-11
• In conclusion, while the "framework" view does not deny the truthfulness of Scripture, it adopts an interpretation of Scripture which seems very unlikely.

      b. "Young Earth" Theories of Creation: Young Earth advocates propose that the earth is likely only 10,000-20,000 years old.

         1. Creation With an Appearance of Age (Mature Creationism):

• Many who hold to this view point out that the original creation must have had an "appearance of age" even from the first day. The appearance of Adam and Eve as full-grown adults is an excellent example. Similarly, they probably saw the stars the first night they lived, but the light from most stars would take thousands of years to reach the earth. This suggests that God created the stars with light beams already in place. Other indicators include mature vegetation bearing fruit immediately and full-grown animals.
• A common objection to this view is that it makes God appear deceitful. But God is not deceiving if He creates a grown man and woman or a mature earth and tells us that He did it.
• The biggest problem with this view is fossils. Responsible Christians would not want to suggest that God scattered fossils throughout the earth to give an added appearance of age. It seems the only credible explanations for the fossil record that Christians can adopt are:
• Current dating methods are incorrect by colossal proportions because of flawed assumptions or because of changes brought about by the fall or the flood
• Current dating methods are approximately correct and the earth is many millions or even billions of years old

         2. Flood Geology

• This is the view that the tremendous natural forces unleashed by the flood at the time of Noah significantly altered the face of the earth, causing the creation of coal and diamonds, for example, within the space of a year rather than hundreds of millions of years, because of the extremely high pressure exerted by the water on the earth.
• The geological arguments put forth by advocates of this view are technical and difficult for the nonspecialist to evaluate, but it is not a popular view since its advocates have persuaded almost no professional geologists, even those who are Bible-believing evangelical Christians.

   5. Conclusions on the Age of the Earth

• Young's arguments for an old earth based on many kinds of scientific data from different disciplines seem to be very strong. This is particularly true of arguments based on fossil-bearing rocks, coral reefs, continental drift, and the similarity of results from different kinds of radiometric dating.
• On the other hand, the interpretations of Genesis 1 presented by old earth advocates, while possible, do not seem as natural to the sense of the text.

   6. The Need for Further Understanding

• Although our conclusions are tentative, at this point in our understanding, Scripture seems to be more easily understood to suggest (but not to require) a young earth view, while the observable facts of creation seem increasingly to favor an old earth view. Both views are possible, but neither one is certain. And we must say very clearly that the age of the earth is a matter that is not directly taught in Scripture, in which case it would seem best (1) to admit that God may not allow us to find a clear solution to this question before Christ returns, and (2) to encourage evangelical scientists and theologians who fall in both the young earth and old earth camps to begin to work together with much less arrogance, much more humility, and a much greater sense of cooperation in a common purpose.

F. Application: The doctrine of creation has many applications for Christians today.

• It makes us realize that the material universe is good in itself, for God created it good and wants us to use it in ways pleasing to him.
• It enables us to recognize more clearly that scientific and technological study in itself glorifies God, for it enables us to discover how incredibly wise, powerful, and skillful God was in his work of creation.
• It also reminds us that God is sovereign over the universe he created.
• It draws us into worship as we study and recognize the incredible size and amazing complexity of creation.
• It allows us to wholeheartedly enjoy creative activities with an attitude of thanksgiving that our Creator God enables us to imitate him in our creativity.