Coming to Grips with Genesis by Terry Mortenson

Author:Terry Mortenson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Biblical Studies / Old Testament, RELIGION / Biblical Studies / Exegesis &#38, Hermeneutics
ISBN: 9781614580362
Publisher: Master Books
Published: 2013-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

The days of creation may also pose difficulties for a strict historical account. Contemporary scientists almost unanimously discount the possibility of creation in one week, and we cannot summarily discount the evidence of the earth sciences. General revelation in creation, as well as the special revelation of Scripture is also the voice of God. We live in a “universe,” and all truth speaks with one voice.137

But not all truth claims of man are actually true. And young-earth creation scientists do not “summarily discount” the geological evidence; rather they challenge the naturalistic uniformitarian interpretations of the evidence. Waltke essentially reduces general revelation to what fallen man says that revelation discloses.138 This way of thinking doesn’t merely equate the “assured results” of scientific opinion with the scriptural revelation from God; it in effect elevates the dominant scientific view to be the hermeneutical authority for understanding Scripture, thereby justifying a figurative reading of the creation account.139 While Waltke’s assessment does not explicitly address the age of the earth, his position supports an old-earth model.

More specifically, Kline has taken the lead in crafting a modern exegetical reinterpretation of the creation account that allows for an old-earth model. Though Irons and Kline claim that those who accept the framework view need not espouse a particular view about the age of the earth,140 this claim is hollow and misleading. Three items imply that the real “unargued presupposition” of the framework is an old-earth model.

First, if Genesis 2:5 teaches that ordinary providence operated exclusively during the creation period of 1:1–2:3, this suggests that the creation period involved a very extended period of time, as Kline asserts. “Gen. 2:5 reflects an environmental situation that has obviously lasted for a while; it assumes a far more leisurely pace on the part of the Creator, for whom a thousand years are as one day. The tempo of the literalists’ reconstructed cosmogony leaves no room for the era-perspective of Gen. 2:5.”141 This certainly intimates an old-earth model.142

Furthermore, Kline implies a presumed commitment to modern scientific opinion when he states that traditional interpretations of the creation account are guilty of creating a conflict between the Bible and science.143 In actuality, a literal interpretation of the creation week is in conflict with naturalistic uniformitarian interpretations of the scientific data and with Kline’s interpretation of Genesis 2:5.144

Finally, in a context affirming his acceptance of Scripture’s authority about Adam’s federal headship, Kline states, “In this article, I have advocated an interpretation of biblical cosmogony according to which Scripture is open to the current scientific view of a very old universe and, in that respect, does not discountenance the theory of the evolutionary origin of man.”145 In the final analysis, an old-earth model shaped by our evolutionary age, along with its demand for death and destruction long before the fall of Adam, provides the matrix in which the framework view has been conceived.146

If we did not live in this current age, could framework advocates even have dreamed of using “day,” “evening,” and “morning” figuratively?147 Because there

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