Michael wrote,
<< YEC did start in the USA with Price and Morris but it is now wolrdwide . It
is not the traditional view of Christians and until recently nearly all
evangelicals believed in an old earth, consider those from the 19th century.
>>
After a good informative corrective on the beliefs of Christians since 1700
or 1800, this ending misses the mark. I think a 6000 year old earth is the
traditional view of Christians.
It was common for the church fathers to use the six days of Genesis as an
outline or pattern for the history of the world wherein each day of creation
stood for 1000 years of world history, with the millennial reign of Christ to
begin at the end of the 6000 years. But no one thought that the days of
creation themselves were each 1000 years long. If they had thought that,
they would have believed that the world was 6000 years old at the end of the
sixth day of creation. But, in fact, they regarded the end of the sixth day
of creation as the beginning of the first 1000 years of the age of the world.
As Augustine himself said,
They ...being deceived by a kind of false writing, that say: "The world has
continued many thousand years," whereas the holy scripture gives us not yet
six thousand years since man was made.(St. Augustine, The City of God 12:10,
New York: E. P. Dutton, 1945, p.317)
From the beginning of church history until modern times, all Christians
believed the world was less than 6000 years old. (For the first and second
century see Theophilus to Autolycus 3:28, The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol.2, ed.
A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1899, p.120.
Also for the views of the first century see , Josephus, Ant.1:1:13, "The
things arrated in the sacred scriptures...embrace the history of 5000
years..." Cf. 2Enoch 72:6 and The Assumption of Moses 1:2,3) And fifteen
hundred years after Christ, Luther wrote, "Now, we know from Moses that about
six thousand years ago the world was not yet in existence..."( Luther's
Commentary on Genesis Vol.1, Grand Rapids: Zondervan,1958, p.3)
Even into the the nineteenth century I think most conservative
Christians continued to think of the world as only about 6000 years old.(F.
C. Haber, The Age of the World: Moses to Darwin, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins,
1959, p.246. Cf. John Gill (c. 1750), Complete Body of Doctrinal and
Practical Divinity Vol.1, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978 repr., p.370; also Adam
Clarke, 1810-1825, Chart: Adam's death is in 930 Anno Mundi.)
Yes, there were Howard Van Tills and Davis Youngs in the 1800's who protested
"Scriptural Geology" but who was listening?
I say, admit the Bible does not teach modern science and that the most
natural interpretation of Gen 1 ff is that the earth is only c. 6000 years
old. Why not? None of Gen 1 (or any other part of the Bible for that matter)
reflects modern science. Belief in the solidity of the sky and the ocean
above it (which Genesis delineates even more clearly than a 6000 year old
earth) was also the traditional view of the Church; but, YECs rationalize
that away as quickly as classical concordists. So if you want YECs to
rationalize away the 6000 year old earth and the global flood, make a basic
knowledge of geology (and anthropology) as common as a basic knowledge of
astronomy.
And this education should begin by educating the theologians who belong to
and attend the meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society. It is their
arm-chair theologizing that supports the unbiblical illusion that the Bible
claims to be inerrant in science. The Bible makes no such claim; it is a
human addition to Scripture. (See my book, Inerrant Wisdom and/or James D.G.
Dunn, "The Authority of Scripture according to Scripture," Churchman 96
(1982) 104-122 and 201-225.). When YECs understand the authority of Scripture
as Jesus understood it, i.e., as containing some concessions to cultural
views of the times (Matt 19:8/Mark 10:5) and that the world is most certainly
not 6000 years old and there most certainly was not a global flood, YECism
will disappear.
Paul
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