The purpose of this paper is to present a brief historical sketch concerning the authorship of the Pentateuch, explain and evaluate the documentary hypothesis, and set forth some suggestions as to how Christians who take the Bible seriously should view this matter of pentateuchal composition.
Even while Genesis 1 and 2 remind us of God's perfect creation of long ago, it holds out the hope of a new creation, a world restored to its original perfection and beauty and harmony.
In two recent publications, Alister McGrath cites John Calvin in support of divine accommodation in a theory of origins. In order to evaluate the validity of McGrath's use of Calvin, it is necessary, first, to look briefly at the concept of divine accommodation and its use as a hermeneutical tool.
In the Gospels, faith is both the preparation for and the product of Jesus’ miracles. The resurrection of Jesus is, of course, the supreme miracle of the gospel and is indeed the basis of Christianity. The grounds for believing in it are cogent, but no amount of evidence can convince those who at the outset assume the impossibility of such an event.
Four rivers are described in Genesis as flowing out of Eden. These rivers are unusual in that the diverge from each other rather than converging as modern rivers do. The explanation may be that they were designed to function in watering the earth, much as canals do today. Published in Origins n. 51.
An etymological, phonetic, philological, syntactical, grammatical, contextual, and conceptual study of the Hebrew word Ed, concluding that it is to be understood as “mist/dew" which arose from below, in a way that was distinct from normal rainfall from above, from river inundation, canal irrigation and other current proposals.
The story of our origins is a vital part of our understanding of ourselves and our world. Although many details of creation are not well understood, the Genesis story of origins provides the logical foundation for the gospel. Both science and Scripture contain many mysteries, but we can see enough to understand that the creation is the result of intentional, supernatural action by a loving Creator, and we can share this good news with others.
The integration of Bible and science is an uphill work that requires careful reading of both the Bible and of scientific data. Because no other natural science has traveled so great a distance down an anti-biblical road, no other science requires this corrective procedure more than biology.
The question of the extent of the Genesis flood is not just a matter of idle curiosity with little at stake for Christian faith. For those who see the days of creation in Genesis 1 as six, literal 24 hour days , a universal Flood is an absolute necessity to explain the existence of the geological column. A literal creation week is inextricably linked with a world-wide flood.
A biblical theology of Creation is summarized in the four basics of reality contained in Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning," "God," "created," and "the heavens and the earth."
We should be cautious in seeking, from our human perspective, to place a limit on the person and power of God. We cannot measure or understand God from the standpoint of our inadequacy. Nor can we appreciate fully the role of God in this earth and its history from the limited perspective of our intelligence.
The purpose of this study is to explore the complex relations between science and theology and to suggest a viable solution to this group of problems.
The complex and vitally essential ecology and biodiversity we find in nature today, at the top of the structural hierarchy of nature, suggest that many interacting organisms would have been required right from the beginning. Only a short-term creation would provide such ecosystem requirements.
This analysis of the Heb of Gen 1:2 has sought to find answers to difficult questions. Does Gen 1:2 describe a watery chaos that existed before the Creation? Is there a direct relationship between Gen 1:2 and the mythology called Chaoskampf?
The purpose of this paper is to identify and assess five elements of a Christian philosophy of science implied in the verse "worship Him who made the heaven and the earth, and sea, and the springs of waters" (Rev 14:7) which is so central to mainline Seventh-day Adventist theology.
Science/religion issues are important because they have to do with ultimate realities, such as whether a supreme being is above the creation and can supernaturally intervene with events such as miracles, an Incarnation, a resurrection, a new birth, or an Advent.
The description of t'hom in Gen 1:2 does not derive from the influence of any Ancient Near Eastern mythology but it is based on the Hebrew conception of the world which explicitly rejects the mythological notions of surrounding nations.
The concept that appears in Gen 1:2 is an abiotic concept of the earth; i.e., Gen 1:2 describes an earth in which there is no life; it presents the absence of life-vegetable, animal, and human.
Could not God have used the process of natural selection to create living organisms? What evidence might one use to answer that question? Published in Origins v. 25, n. 2.
I don't have much faith in logic as a solution to the world's problems, but I do want a logical faith. I don't demand that my faith correspond to "scientific logic" as presently conceived, but I do expect it to be consistent throughout.
