In the end, we believe the date of the earth cannot be a closed-handed issue. It seems to us that those who strongly advocate either young or old earth dates are inferring a position from the Bible that the Bible simply does not state unequivocally. It must also be admitted that the age of the earth is not of great concern in the Bible. The great authors of the Bible, including David, Isaiah, and Paul, and Jesus himself, never referred to the age of the earth, even though they asserted God as Creator.
As Augustine rightly said, the Bible is not a scientific textbook seeking to answer the ever-changing inquiries of science but rather a theological textbook seeking to reveal God and the means by which he saves us. What the Bible actually teaches is inerrant truth from God that must be believed, but it does not teach everything we want to know. We must be courageous to receive and teach unashamedly what it does say as closed-handed issues but humble enough to let unclear and unrevealed matters be open-handed issues, avoiding unprofitable controversies.
- Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears,
Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe (RE: Lit)
, p. 95
5 comments:
Yes, and few of us are going to look down at our WWJD bracelet and decide to build our own universe.
"It seems to us that those who strongly advocate either young or old earth dates are inferring a position from the Bible that the Bible simply does not state unequivocally."
Actually, isn't this exactly what many (most?) adherents to a "young-earth" position believe, that the Bible does support their position unequivocally?
I agree wholeheartedly that we ought not divide over this issue. And I personally believe that the Bible does not speak unequivocally to the age of the earth. But it seems wrong for me to assume that everyone else sees it that way. Just my thoughts...
I have that book and I know what you cited can't be on page 9 since it is chapter 2 and the 1st chapter on the Trinity is longer than 9 pages. (just thought you may want to fix it)...
btw, great book so far (I'm just reading through it as I can tell you are by what you are quoting from it)
It seems to me that the issue over the age of the earth has less to do with the actual age of the earth and with how we view/interpret the Bible. Is it to be taken as it is, or are we to change the straightforward reading of the text if it doesn't seem to fit into our own experiences, understandings, current scientific beliefs or personal preferences.
The primary feature of the Genesis account is a pre-existent bottomless sea (ala Thales).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thales
The second most prominent feature is the causure of the land emerging from that sea and being placed on mysterious foundations:
Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the **foundations of the earth** [dry land]? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Psalms 104:5 Who laid the **foundations of the earth** [dry land], that it should not be removed for ever.
Isaiah 51:13 And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth [dry lnad]; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
The third feature is the stretching out of a solid structure called "the sky" to support the waters above the dry land:
Genesis 1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Genesis 1:7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Genesis 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
And then we see that God would dwell in the sky, because he made it for a habitation for himself (and his deputies, "angels"):
Isaiah 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth [dry land, not the planet!], and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, **and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in**:
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