Andy Karplus

In a panel discussion on the origins of life  Dr Andy Karplus (Professor of Biochemistry, Oregon State University) advocated a ‘theistic evolution’ position.

Such a position raises the question, ‘If you do not think that the first two chapters of Genesis teach science, what do they teach?’  Dr Karplus gave a helpful summary of the main doctrines taught in these chapters:-

1. There is one all-powerful God, who is distinct from creation and created all things.
2. The special position of humankind as created in God’s image.
3. The goodness of creation, and the God who cares.
4. The charge to be care-takers of the earth.
5. A validation of both hard work and regular rest.
6. A special relationship between a man and a woman.
7. An explanation of a disrupted relationship between God and a promise of redemption.

John Stott

Stott comments that ‘God’s Word is designed to make us Christians, not scientists.’  It was not God’s purpose to reveal in Scripture what we could discover by means of observation and experimentation.  Genesis 1-3 reveals four truths that we could not have learned from science:-

1. God made everything.
2. He made everything out of nothing.
3. He made man male and female in his own image.
4. Everything which he made was ‘very good’.

(Authentic Christianity, 89)

J.I. Packer

Packer has a helpful summary of his views on the relation between the biblical creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:4a) and contemporary scientific thinking about origins.  This makes it clear that he regard the account as primarily theological rather than historical:-

1. the narrative is a celebrating of the fact of creation and of the Creator’s wisdom, power and goodness, rather than an observational monitoring of stages in the creative process;
2. the story focuses not on the cosmic system as a system, but on the Creator apart from whose will and word it would not at this moment exist;
3. the narrative method is imaginative, pictorial, poetic and doxological…rather than clinically descriptive and coldly prosaic in the deadpan scientific manner;
4. the Earth-centredness of the presentation reflects not scientific naivety about the solar system and out space, but theological interest in man’s uniqueness and responsibility under God on this planet;
5. the evident aim of the story is to show its readers their own place and calling in God’s world, and the abiding significance of the sabbath as a memorial of creation, rather than to satisfy curiosity about the details of what happened long ago.

God’s Words, p60.

John Calvin

‘Moses is not analyzing acutely, like the philosophers, the secrets of nature; and these words show it. First he sets the planets and stars in the expanse of the heaven. Astronomers distinguish a number of spheres in the firmament and teach that the fixed stars have their own place in it. Moses mentions two great luminaries. The astronomers prove with strong arguments that the star Saturn, which seems small because of its distance, is larger than the moon.

‘All this shows that Moses described in popular style what all ordinary men without training and education perceive with their ordinary senses. Astronomers, on the other hand, investigate with great labor whatever the keenness of man’s intellect is able to discover. Such study is certainly not to be disapproved, nor science condemned with the insolence of some fanatics who habitually reject whatever is unknown to them.

‘The study of astronomy not only gives pleasure but is also extremely useful. And no one can deny that it admirably reveals the wisdom of God. Therefore, clever men who expend their labor upon it are to be praised and those who have ability and leisure ought not to neglect work of that kind.

‘Moses did not wish to keep us from such study when he omitted the details belonging to the science. But, since he had been appointed guide of rude and unlearned men rather than of the learned, he could not fulfill his duty except by coming down to their level. If he had spoken of matters unknown to the crowd, the unlearned could say that his teaching was over their heads. In fact, when the Spirit of God opens a common school for all, it is not strange that he chooses to teach especially what can be understood by all.

‘When the astronomer seeks the true size of stars and finds the moon smaller than Saturn, he gives us specialized knowledge. But the eye sees things differently; and Moses adapts himself to the ordinary view.

‘God has stretched out his hand to us to give us the splendor of the sun and moon to enjoy. Great would be our ingratitude if we shut our eyes to this experience of beauty! There is no reason why clever men should jeer at Moses’ ignorance. He is not explaining the heavens to us but describing what is before our eyes. Let the astronomers possess their own deeper knowledge. Meanwhile, those who see the nightly splendor of the moon are possessed by perverse ingratitude if they do not recognize the goodness of God.’