Dear Sir,
With reference to recent letters on the subject of creation, I am very glad to pay tribute to the valuable work that the various ‘creation ministries’ have done in showing the weakness of atheistic evolution. But I do wonder whether some of their current emphases should be questioned.
During much of the last century there was no single view regarding the age of the earth, or the nature of the ‘days’ in Genesis 1, which was regarded as uniquely orthodox. Opinions differed among evangelicals and if there were any discussions they were invariably calm and harmonious; certainly I do not remember accusations that people were ‘compromising’ or ‘undermining Scripture.’ It was fully understood that everyone was equally committed to belief in an inerrant Bible, whatever their view on the ‘days’. Men of the stature of Edward J Young and Francis Schaeffer could decline to be dogmatic on these things. Martyn Lloyd-Jones considered the ‘Gap Theory’ to be a possibility.
How different today! The attack on any other interpretation than the young earth/six 24 hour position seems to be based on the circular, and question-begging, argument that begins with the assertion that the days are absolutely literal and the earth is young and, from that assertion, automatically follows the assertion that any other interpretation is compromise.
This letter is not a criticism of, or defence of, any particular view. It is an appeal to everyone to accept that Christians who equally love, and are committed to, the Bible as the infallible Word of God in its entirety can, and do, hold differing views. It is emphatically not a matter of ‘not trusting the Bible’. It is an appeal for us to be passionate about maintaining the unity of the Spirit in one body. We are all ‘creationists’, so let us concentrate our fire against those who openly scorn God’s Word and not wound one another; and may we never misrepresent one another’s position. There are already far too many barriers in the church of Christ.
Evidence that something is wrong is demonstrated by the fact that I have to withhold my details because of fear of creating a controversy with my friends.
Yours sincerely,
