On Mon, 3 Jun 2002, Vernon Jenkins wrote:
> Despite your assurances re the cast-iron nature of the evidence
>for evolution,
> those of us who accept the Bible as a unique body of revealed truth find it
> impossible to believe for the simple reason that the alleged process
> is completely
> at odds with the direct teaching of the Incarnated Creator, Jesus Christ. For
> example, how do you square "...Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
> heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind...and...Thou
>shalt love thy
> neighbour as thyself." (Mt.22:37-39) with the principle 'dog eat
> dog'? Why would
> our Lord - the personification of love - choose to use such a
> process, declare it
> complete, and then pronounce it all to be 'very good'? It is surely
> an affront to
> common sense and to the intelligence of every Bible-believer to
> equate 'creation'
> with 'evolution'.
One need not be an evolutionist to believe that what God declares to be
very good might not match the opinions of man. Psalm 104 praises the Lord
for His very good creation. One of the things it praises Him for is
predatory beasts (vs. 21).
> By the way, concerning your contention that the 'mabbul' was 'local':
> are you not
> ignoring the powerful language of
> the narrative, the NT evidence, and simple _common sense_. With 100
> years at his
> disposal, Noah could easily
> have walked his family and himself - along with the animals - to
> safety! It would
> appear that you deny the Scriptures
> and ignore the obvious simply because of 'evolutionary pressures'.
Again, one need not be an evolutionist to believe that the Flood was not
global. Rather than always relying on a translation, one should take a
look at the Hebrew and not just the numerical values of the letters in one
verse. What would 'erets have meant to the ancient Hebrews? Even in the
writings of the early church fathers we can find comments about the fact
that wind would not cause a global flood to abate. Noah was a preacher of
righteousness (II Peter 2:5). He had a call to a particular place. If he
had decided to escape judgment the easy way and, like Jonah, go somewhere
else, he wouldn't have been honored for his faith in Hebrews 11.
Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395
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