Re: [asa] RE: Apologetics Conference 2008 (William Lane Craig)

There is no way I could sign the Biola statement but I have no problem with
Messiah's except I would swap the Apostle's creed for the Nicene.

My problem is that I am not happy with this type of divine intervention. To
me there is no difference whether life was created by intervention or front
loaded and so on humans

Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Davis" <TDavis@messiah.edu>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>; "Bernie Dehler" <bernie.dehler@intel.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 5:51 PM
Subject: RE: [asa] RE: Apologetics Conference 2008 (William Lane Craig)

I follow up on this:

>>> "Dehler, Bernie" <bernie.dehler@intel.com> 11/12/2008 11:42 AM >>>
Schwarzwald said about William Lane Craig:
"He comes across as appealing for - amazingly enough - moderation and
charity towards fellow Christians who disagree on these points, particularly
insofar as how they relate to theology."

***

Let's be clear about the limitations facing WLC or anyone else who teaches
at Biola University. There are views on origins that one cannot hold, if
one has a Biola contract -- just as there are views that one cannot hold if
one teaches at Messiah. (The sets of views I refer to here are not
identical, but they do have some overlap since both Messiah and Biola hire
only professing Christians as faculty members. Messiah sees itself
doctrinally more in terms of classical orthodoxy than the typically more
specific confessions associated with evangelical groups, but I am in no way
criticizing Biola for having its own set of specific commitments. I
celebrate their freedom to define their institution no less than our freedom
to define ours.)

The Biola faith statement is here
http://www.biola.edu/about/doctrinal-statement/

Here is the section relevant to this thread:

<The existence and nature of the creation is due to the direct miraculous
power of God. The origin of the universe, the origin of life, the origin of
kinds of living things, and the origin of humans cannot be explained
adequately apart from reference to that intelligent exercise of power. A
proper understanding of science does not require that all phenomena in
nature must be explained solely by reference to physical events, laws and
chance.

Therefore, creation models which seek to harmonize science and the Bible
should maintain at least the following: (a) God providentially directs His
creation, (b) He specially intervened in at least the above-mentioned points
in the creation process, and (c) God specially created Adam and Eve (Adam’s
body from non-living material, and his spiritual nature immediately from
God). Inadequate origin models hold that (a) God never directly intervened
in creating nature and/or (b) humans share a common physical ancestry with
earlier life forms.>

Since WLC is a person of integrity, one can assume that his views on origins
are consistent with these two paragraphs. Some present and past Biola
faculty are YECs, but to the best of my knowledge WLC is an OEC. Certainly
his superb book on the Big Bang suggests this.

Ted

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Received on Wed Nov 12 13:59:47 2008