Dave wrote:
Ted wrote, in small part:
This summer, I'm supposed to speak on Creationist hermeneutics at a
conference in Ontario. Here's the details.
http://cs.redeemer.on.ca/pascal/
I haven't written anything about this yet, but I've been thinking
hard
about it and would be happy to have people help me out with any
comments/suggestions they have.
The article I did for Perspectives titled "Young-Earth Creationism:
A Literal Mistake" is
online.
I think you can find a good argument there. Here is a brief
excerpt:
Scripture Evidence for an
Old Earth
Is the earth
young or old? Let us thumb through the Bible and see. In Job 15:1,
Eliphaz asked Job,
“Wast thou
made before the hills?”
Does it
seem reasonable that Eliphaz would have used this question of digging
sarcasm had he thought the age of the hills and the age of humans were
virtually the same, varying by a scant five days?
The intent of Eliphaz in Job is confirmed by Hab. 3:6. The
mountains are described as
“everlasting”;
the hills
are
“perpetual.”
The
Hebrew words
‘ad
and
‘owlam
mean
“long duration,” “ancient,” “forever,” and “continuous
existence.”
Does the Bible comment on the earth-age dispute? Consider Eccles. 1:10:
“Is there
any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already
of old time, which was before us.”
Could
“any
thing”
include
an earth, for example?
After Peter declares that false prophets and false teachers will come in
the last days, he warns in 2 Pet. 3:5,
“For this
they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were
of old …”
Who says
the earth and heavens are young? Those who are “willingly
ignorant.”
One of the arguments I use that I
did not include in the article concerns Genesis 2:14. YECs will say
that the entire topography of the earth was scrubbed during the flood,
and that the rivers of Mesopotamia were named after the rivers in
Genesis, but were not the original rivers.
What I point out is that this idea won't work with Assyria named in the
same passage. Assyria was named after Asshur who founded the
capital city of Ninevah in Genesis 10:11 after the flood. There
could not be a country named Assyria before the flood.
Assyria, named in Genesis 2:14, must be the same Assyria referred to in
the rest of the Old Testament. And since the Tigris (Hiddekel)
still flows east from Assyria today it has to be the same river near
where the garden of Eden was located. This clearly negates a
global, fossil-sequencing flood.
Dick Fischer -
Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org
Received on Sun Jan 23 13:09:40 2005