Theological Bites
In the first introduction of the book of Genesis, it was stated that there are two models of the outline of this book. One could be a NARRATIVE model and the other could be a THEMATIC model.
Narrative: Chapters 1-11 is Primeval History: Bible readers must understand that the Bible is a historically relevant book. While it records myths, it as well records real events in History that are cross-cutting. Chapters 12-50 is Patriarchal History: Genesis introduces a very interesting history and that is the history of the patriarchs. Every Culture has its Patriarchs and what we have in Genesis is the history of the Patriarchs to the Hebrews who in principle represent the foundations of majority patriarchal societies.
Thematic: Chapters 1-2 is about Creation/Origins: There are two largely believed worldviews about the origin of everything. The first says there is a Being that created everything from nothing (Ex-nihilo) and the other contends everything evolved from something due to an unknown natural reaction. Chapters 3-50 is about Salvation History (Heilsgeschichte): Genesis is an introduction to a story about the relationship between God, his creation and his people. The book introduces the story of two WHEREs and two WHATs.
- Where did everything come from? (Origin)
- Where are we? (Purpose)
- What is Wrong? (Problem)
- What is the Solution? (Destiny)
It was also emphasized that whichever outline you choose, the meaning of Genesis must not be isolated from the rest of the Bible books. In the second introduction, we briefly looked at the two major worldviews about the Origin of everything. Emphasis was placed on the worldview of Naturalism where we looked at the theory of evolution. We continue with the quest of origin under the worldview of naturalism.
The Quest of Origin
Our interpretation of the Bible frames our worldview and in the long run, that worldview shapes our hermeneutics (Bible Interpretation).
When religious people due to their hermeneutics, their conclusions and what was recorded in the Bible couldn’t ably respond to some scientific and logical questions and challenges to the text, they developed the theory of ‘Theistic Evolution’. The phrase ‘theistic evolution’ is a combination of two world views which are theism and Naturalism.
After some theologians were overwhelmed with the evidence from the scientific, historical and philosophical world against their biblical conservative conclusions and positions, they devised a reconciliatory concept known as ‘Theistic Evolution. The idea intends that God created the first matter and from that point, God guided the process of evolution (Genesis 1:2-2:1-25).
While we exclusive creationists maintain that God created everything once and complete (Genesis 1:1), the theistic evolutionists argue that he created the first things and the rest was divine guided evolution. Richard Dawkins (atheist) called the term ‘theistic evolution’ an attempt to ‘smuggle God in by the back door’.
When we read the book of Genesis we are left with two options to choose from. We either believe God is the origin of everything and nothing is here by chance or we believe the other which maintains that everything happened to exist by chance and has evolved since then. The theistic evolutionists want to believe both and tend to merge both, that is why Atheists like Richard Dawkins who don’t believe in intelligent design creator like us Creationists insist that theistic evolutionists smuggle god in matters where he has no role at all. I agree with him on this.
Theistic evolution simply compromises the integrity of the science and in the process dismisses the theological argument of God as the first uncaused-cause.
Kenneth R. Miller on theistic evolution states: “the term implies that a god had to pre-ordain the outcome of the evolutionary process or at the very least guide it along to produce the world of today, including human beings his chosen creatures. I don’t believe that at all. Evolution is a fully-independent natural process driven by chance and necessity.”
The four theistic Evolutionists
The categories that are mentioned here below do not necessarily consider themselves theistic evolutionists nor do they confess to being evolutionists. However, I categorize them under theistic evolution because they all make God (theism) as one of the participators (and not the only/exclusive) in the Origin of things in their conclusions.
- Theistic Evolution: (Batsell Barrett Baxter provides a working definition of theistic evolution: “The theistic evolutionist holds a position somewhat between that of the absolute evolutionist and the creationist. He believes that God created the materials of our universe and then guided and superintended the process by which all life has evolved from the very simplest one-celled form up to the sophisticated forms which we know today. Evolution was Gods method of bringing about the present development though originally the materials were created by God” (Batsell Barrett Baxter, I Believe Because, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House: 1971, p. 159).)
- Young Earth Creationism: (Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism that holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its life forms were created in their present forms by supernatural acts of a deity between approximately 6,000 and 10,000 years ago.) the hermeneutics of this school of thought interpret the first chapters of Genesis literalistically. If Genesis speaks of God creating on a particular day, the YEC view says “day” means 24 hours. So God created most of what exists in the first six-day week (and “rested” on the seventh day).
- Old Earth Creationism: Organic and Inorganic: known as progressive creationism or sometimes as Gap Creationism (Old Earth Creationists hold that various aspects of living things were created by special supernatural intervention. Unlike Young Earth Creationists, however, Old Earth Creationists accept the scientific evidence for the age of the earth and the universe.) Gap creationism is a form of old Earth creationism which posits the belief that the six-yom creation period, as described in the Book of Genesis, involved six literal 24-hour days, but that there was a gap of time between two distinct creations in the first and second verses of Genesis.
- Intelligent design: Intelligent design (ID) is another one. While it accepts an old Earth and most of science, it also claims that “certain features of the universe and living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection”. Science accepts only two explanations, namely necessity (natural law) and chance (variation), ID tries to add a third called “design” which takes it out of the world of science. In other words, ID says that scientific explanations don’t go far enough in explaining the apparent design in nature. Concerning evolution, ID does not accept that unguided processes (roughly, genetic mutation and natural selection) could have resulted in life as we know it. So ID postulates an interventionist designer as the most explanatory hypothesis. (https://theconversation.com/categories-of-creationists-and-their-views-on-science-27123)
These are the four major views that are between theism (God as the absolute creator) and Naturalism (Chance/accident as the origin of things and people); unfortunately, these views are propagated by believers in God but not pagan Scientists or ordinary atheists. You can tell by how your religion understands the first 11 chapters of Genesis. The Salter said: “In wisdom, you have made them all,’ says the psalmist of God’s activities in nature (Psalm 104:24). Believers today, often blinded by modern science, fail to see that divine wisdom.
Hank Hanegraaff wrote: “Under the banner of ‘theistic evolution,’ a growing number of Christians maintain that God used evolution as his method for creation. This I believe to be the worst of all possibilities. It is one thing to believe in evolution; it is quite another to blame God for it. Indeed, theistic evolution is a contradiction in terms―like the phrase “flaming snowflakes.” God can no more direct an undirected process than he can create a square circle. Yet this is precisely what theistic evolution presupposes. Modern Christians too often buy high and sell low―just as neo-Darwinian evolutionism is fighting for its very life, it is being propped up by an irrational hypothesis”.
As Christians and creationists, our position is one, God is the creator and he is the uncaused-cause of everything that was caused. He worked with no pre-raw material but made everything and everyone out of nothing. We and everything else has our origin in God and God alone as Genesis 1:1 states.
God bless you,
I invoke TRUTH, WISDOM and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)
Priest M.I.T White (+256-775 822833)
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