> John McKiness wrote:
>
> >It seems to me that this rest should be taken as a completion or ending of
> >some activity and it appears to be that of creation in Genesis for God and
> >of our earthly struggle when applied to us. I know that some have divided
> >up God's activity into the categories of Creative, Sustaining, and
> >Redemptive (at this point I don't remember the original source for this
> >concept) and I believe that some authors in the past (if I remember right
> >F. Schaeffer in _Genesis in Space and Time_ was one) believed that on the
> >Seventh Day God stopped His Creative activity but His Sustaining activity
> >continued and Redemptive began at the moment of Adam's sin.
>
> My understanding is that God's creative activity continues to the present.
> Some relevant passages (among others) are --
>
> Psalm 104:27-30
> "These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When
> you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are
> satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified;
> when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you
> send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth."
>
> Psalm 139:13-14
> "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
> I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are
> wonderful, I know that full well."
>
> Psalm 102: 18
> "Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created
> may praise the LORD:"
>
> Psalm 51:10
> "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."
I looked up the word CREATE, "bara" in the concordance and it is used
interchangeably with MADE, "asah" in many occasions. The latter seem to
suggest forming something from preexisting matters. The creation work in
Genesis was Creation ex nihilo, as elegantly pointed out by St. Augustine.
God has concluded His creative activities of Genesis. (Gen. 2:1). What God
is creating today is the NEW CREATION in Christ, (I Cor. 5:17). God
is also upholding the universe with the Word of His power. (Hb. 1:3).
These passages seem to indicate to me that biological lives we know of
today are only variations or speciations from the original created types
by microevolution with no macroevolutionary modications.
------------------------------------- Dr. Pattle Pun Professor of Biology
Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL 60187
eMail: Pattle.P.Pun@wheaton.edu
Phone: (630)752-5303
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