Hi Gordon
Thanks for the more detailed reference to what the Scofield Bible actaully says. I
don't have one to hand. Interesting then that the original edition referenced
Ussher's chronology, the gap theory and the day-age interpretation. Perhaps this
support of all three horses kept all three in the race up to the time when the
superficially plausible YEC of Whitcomb and Morris came along. What does the
Scofield Bible say about the flood?
Jon
gordon brown wrote:
> Jonathan,
>
> The footnotes of the original edition of the Scofield Bible published
> early in the twentieth century supported the gap theory, which allows for
> an indeterminate period of time prior to the supposed ruin of creation due
> to Satan. It also had a footnote saying that the word day did not have to
> mean 24 hours. On the other hand, it also included Ussher's chronology.
> The revision published about fifty years later omitted the gap theory and
> the chronology but retained the footnote about the meaning of day as I
> recall. Thus I don't think the effect of the Scofield Bible was to make
> people intolerant of the idea of an old earth.
>
> Gordon Brown
> Department of Mathematics
> University of Colorado
> Boulder, CO 80309-0395
>
> On Sun, 1 Apr 2001, Jonathan Clarke wrote:
>
> > Good question Graham. I wonder if HM and JW have navels?
> >
> > My reading of writers on the pre HM period (Numbers, Moore, Ramm and
> > Livingstone) is that there was no institutional awareness that the age of the
> > earth was a fundamental issue amongst anyone except SDAs and Missouri
> > Lutherans. Most books on the subject would have argued either a "day age" or
> > "gap" perspective. Organic evolution was more widely seen to be an issue,
> > however. There was a lot of grass roots support for YEC though, possibly
> > because of the influence of the Scofield Bible, something that Numbers does
> > not really take into account, dealing with the more formal writings of church
> > leaders and thinkers. The grass roots support or sympathy for young earth,
> > flood geology, and anti-evolutionary ideas prepared the ground for Whitcomb
> > and Morris.
> >
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