Re: Terry's TE

Bill Hamilton (hamilton@predator.cs.gmr.com)
Mon, 2 Dec 1996 13:05:29 -0500

At 12:09 PM 12/2/96, David J. Tyler wrote:
>Bill Hamilton said on 30th November:
>> As Terry did, I want to make it clear that I don't consider TE or EC the
>> only viable view for Calvinists. Quite a few Calvinists are creationists
>> of various stripes.
>
>Yes, I gathered from reading John Calvin's Commentary on Genesis that
>he was a YEC.

He also alludes to holding this position in The Institutes, although it's a
passing remark (something like, "one can scarcely believe that in the 5500
years the earth has been around that...") He also mentions that skeptics
had asked him, "If God is infinitely old and the earth is only 5500 years
old, what was God doing before He created the earth?" I agree that there
is not a well-defined pattern. However, it has seemed to me that
Calvinists are more willing to admit various symbolic interpretations to
some Scripture passages than most evangelicals, and this makes it easier
for the Calvinist to consider the use of symbols in Genesis. However David
Chilton, a Calvinist author I like very much, who has written a couple of
beautiful studies on Revelation which deal with the symbolic issues better
than any other book on Revelation I have seen, is a YEC as nearly as I can
tell. So obviously YMMV.

Bill Hamilton
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William E. Hamilton, Jr, Ph.D. | Staff Research Engineer
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