Re: [asa] Fw: (aliens) November Newsletter from Reasonable Faith

On Wed, 18 Nov 2009, John Walley wrote:

> Gordon,
>
> I had one of those Scofield Reference Bibles when I was a young Christian in the 80's and I remember finding and reading that note, and learned later that was what was to become known as the Gap Theory. 
>
> What I wasn't aware of though was that that was an attempt to accomodate OEC. On the contrary I thought it was simply a theodical attempt to uphold the "no death before the fall" corrollary of YECism. From what I recall, the footnote referenced a verse in 1 Peter where Peter writes about "a world that then was" implying some form of pre-Adamic world.  Again, maybe it was just me but I never inferred that this substantially changed the intepretation of the age of the earth, but just that is was to excuse the primordial death of dinosaurs etc.
>
> It could be that OEC then as now was a closely guarded secret and Scofield was implying this but if so, it was wasted on me. But I never heard any pastor or teacher ever suggest that either. I just assumed that it was an attempt to accomodate the physical evidence of dinosaur skeletons, but not willing to accomodate the dating mechanisms. It wasn't the only example of selective scientific evidence choosing so it wasn't that inconsistent to me at the time.
>
> Thanks
>
> John
>

Scofield also had a separate footnote concerning the meaning of day, in
which he said that the days in Genesis 1 didn't have to be solar days.
Thus he hints at possible acceptance of the day-age theory. The gap theory
has been attributed to a geologist named Chalmers, I believe, who
propounded it in 1813. (Michael Roberts can correct me on this.) As a
geologist he was indeed probably interested in accommodating an old earth.
One of Scofield's notes says in reference to Gen. 1:1, "The first creative
act refers to the dateless past, and gives scope for all the geologic
ages." Presumably the fossils were regarded as being results of the
destruction of the first creation.

"The world that then was" is mentioned in II Peter 3:6 and presumably
refers to the world of Noah's time.

Gordon Brown (ASA member)

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Received on Wed Nov 18 17:37:36 2009