As we approach CMS Summer School Season, I was browsing past articles on this venerable Sydney tradition, and came to a piece by
Rowan Kemp.
He gushes for Peter in this piece, and distressingly, his general comments betray some huge lacunae in the education of Christians. That questions of the relation of the word of God to the world could elude a paid Christian for so long are shown in this paragraph:
Bible-honouring Christians can feel boxed in. If I embrace science and
its findings I’m sometimes made to feel I’m betraying Christian belief
in creation and respect for God’s Word. On another front if I suggest
that there is intrinsic value in the arts, science, culture or work I
run the risk of being told I’ve inappropriately elevated the merely
temporal—the only thing of real value is evangelism and ministry.
What?
This was not covered in Old Testament 1? Surely!!
But worse is to come:
Moreover, careful attention to the detail and nature of these chapters
shows that we are not obliged to adopt a literal ‘six days’ or ‘young
earth’ position in order to be faithful to Scripture. As Peter Jensen
observed these opening chapters contain hints within them that suggest
God is revealing truths selectively and sometimes symbolically. We’re
not told everything that is going on everywhere: the old question of
from where did Cain find a wife? Maybe there were other humans around—the
text does not preclude it. Sometimes it seems the truth is being
communicated to us in ‘parable-like’ form: was the LORD really ‘walking’
through the garden? Maybe the communication of truth in these chapters
is like Jesus’ parables or the prophet Nathan’s parable to King David:
it’s true, it concerns real events, but maybe they did not occur
precisely as they are described to us.
The damage done in this passage to the Biblical doctrine of creation is lived out every time a paid Christian does similar homage to the dominating materialism of our day: that is, God is, in effect, within the 'creation' and not the external author. This occurs because what really happened at creation is left to materialism: modern evolution is touted as the real 'creation' account. After all, if Genesis is not real events temporally located, then it is about nothing and can teach nothing, because its references are void. The vanity of this type of exegesis is astounding.
Careful attention to detail in Genesis 1 indicates that we are being provided a summary of events, but of events; actual real space-time events delineated by the repeated cross-referencing temporal references: I wonder how more clearly could an author communicate the passage and pace of time.
The most amusing comment is on Cain's wife. Of course there were other humans. The text does not merely preclude it; it states it:
Genesis 5:4 does the job. I also refer to
an article on the topic.
However, the greatest mash up is the 'parable-like' form. We have a word for this: metaphor!
At base, the escape hatch for materialism is in the philosophical idealism that allows a reality to be real in some way that is not temporally apparent. This is pagan nonsense. We need to take our philosophical bearings from the concrete realism of the Bible, with the compass being provided in the creation account as the starting point for our understanding of who God is; who we are; what the world is; and how it all relates together.
