Three Views on Creation and Evolution (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology) by John Mark Reynolds & Howard J. Van Till & Paul Nelson & Robert C. Newman

Author:John Mark Reynolds & Howard J. Van Till & Paul Nelson & Robert C. Newman
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780310873983
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2010-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

With Christian people throughout the ages, I hold to the historic and biblically informed Christian doctrine of creation. That is, I believe that the entire universe (everything that is not God) is a creation that has being only because God has given it being, from nothing, and that God continues to sustain it in being from moment to moment. To “create” something is to “give being” to something. If God were to withdraw his creative word, “Let there be,” the creation would, I believe, cease to be anything and in its place would be nothing, the same “nothing” that preceded it. In other words, I am a creationist in the full theological sense of the term. I see only two kinds of being: God, who is the Creator (the giver of being), and everything else, which is the creation.

What do I see when I look at any of the members of the creation—galaxies, stars, planets, atoms, molecules, cells, living organisms? I see things that have been given a being that is defined in part by their “creaturely properties”—creatures have properties like size, color, weight, chemical composition, temperature, form, and structure. But the being of creatures is also defined in a very important way by a characteristic set of “creaturely capabilities” to act in particular ways. Atoms, molecules, cells, and organisms, for instance, possess not only properties but also the capabilities to act and interact in a remarkably rich diversity of ways. Those capabilities for acting are essential elements of their being.

As a Christian committed to the doctrine of creation, I recognize all of these “creaturely capabilities” as the gifts of being that God has given to his creation. A creature can do no more (nor less) than what God has gifted it with the capabilities to do. And if any one of a creature’s capabilities for action were withheld or withdrawn, it would have a different (and less capable) being.

From this creationist theological perspective, then, each discovery of a creaturely capability—including every discovery contributed by the natural sciences—provides me with an occasion for giving praise to God for his immeasurable creativity and generosity. In the spirit of this perspective I am inclined to have very high expectations regarding the wealth of capabilities with which God has gifted the creation’s being. This high expectation is affirmed each time that the natural sciences come to an awareness of another entry in the list of the creation’s capabilities.

In part, the creation-evolution controversy is a disagreement concerning the extent of the list of creaturely capabilities with which the creation has been gifted by God. Has the creation been gifted with all of the capabilities that would be necessary to make something like biotic evolution possible? Special creationists are convinced that it has not. I am inclined to believe that it has. I believe that God has so generously gifted the creation with the capabilities for self-organization and transformation that an unbroken line of evolutionary development from nonliving matter to the full array of existing life-forms is not only possible but has in fact taken place.

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