Transcript Dr. Terry Mortenson Millions of Years & the Compromise of the Theologians, part 2

Dr. Terry Mortenson
Millions of Years &
the Compromise of the
Theologians, part 2
1.9—3.8
Billion
Years
According
to
Evolution
Early 19C th
views of earth history
Early 19 Century Views of
new
Earth History
Catastrophist view (e.g., Cuvier, Smith)
SB
C
C
C
C
P
(millions of years)
Uniformitarian view (e.g., Hutton, Lyell)
SB?
P
(millions of years)
Biblical/Traditional view (Scriptural geologists)
SCW
F
(ca. 6000 years)
P
Genesis
& Geology:
19C #1
Early
1800s:
Compromises
with Old-Earth Geology
1810s Gap theory (Chalmers)
1820s Day-age theory (Faber)
Tranquil flood theory (Fleming)
1830s Local Flood theory (Pye Smith)
Genesis is myth (liberals)
Genesis
& Geology:
19C #2
Early 1800s:
Faithfulness
to Scripture
1820-50
Young-earth creationism
(“Scriptural geologists”)
SG Biblical
objections 1
Biblical
Objections
 Superficial analysis of the Bible
Gen. 6:17 NAS
Genesis
6:17
Behold, I, even I am bringing the
flood of water upon the earth, to
destroy all flesh in which is the
breath of life, from under heaven;
everything that is on the earth
shall perish.
Ex. 20:1120:11
NAS
Exodus
For in six days the Lord made
the heavens and earth, the sea,
and all that is in them, and
rested on the seventh day;
therefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day and made it holy.
Purple blank
William Buckland
(1784-1856)
Anglican Clergyman
and Geology
Professor at Oxford
Purple blank
Adam Sedgwick
(1785-1873)
Anglican Clergyman
and Geology
Professor at
Cambridge
Collins 2003—geology not anti“First, it is true that modern geology
Bible
#1
does not depend
on Scripture
(it isn’t
true that it ignores it, though: many
works cite James Ussher’s chronology
for the world). But this is a far cry from
saying that it sets itself in opposition to
the Bible. In fact, most of the
pioneering geologists in early
nineteenth-century England were pious
Anglicans—some were clergy.”
C. John Collins, Science and Faith: Friends or Foes?
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003), p. 247.
SG BiblicalObjections
objections 2
Biblical
 Superficial analysis of the Bible
 Death before the Fall
“We may1828—no
add, that in the
sacred
Young
death
b4 fall
volume, the misery and destruction of
the creatures are represented as the
bitter fruits of man’s transgression;
and how can we admit, that the
catastrophes belonging to the
formation system, were antecedent to
the introduction of sin, and even to
the creation of man?”
George Young, A Geological Survey of the
Yorkshire Coast (Whitby: R. Kirby, 1828), p. 342.
A&E on bones
Brown
death
fall
“And it is1838—no
a point worthy
of ourb4
most
serious reflection, when men, who
are known to be public teachers of
morals and religion, place a subject
of such incalculable importance as
death in a light which essentially
varies from that in which it is placed
by God.”
James Mellor Brown, Reflections on
Geology (London, 1838), p. 45.
Purple blank
William Buckland
1839
John Pye Smith
SG BiblicalObjections
objections 3
Biblical
 Superficial analysis of the Bible
 Death before the Fall
 The nature of God
“Hence then, we have arrived at the wanton and
wicked
notion
of the Hindoos, viz.,
that God #2
has
Bugg
1826—God’s
wisdom
‘created and destroyed worlds as if in sport, again
and again’!! But will any Christian Divine who
regards his Bible, or will any Philosopher who
believes that the Almighty works no ‘superfluous
miracles,’ and does nothing in vain, advocate the
absurdity that a wise, just and benevolent Deity
has, ‘numerous’ times, wrought miracles, and
gone out of his usual way for the sole purpose of
destroying whole generations of animals, that he
might create others very like them, but yet
differing a little from their predecessors!!”
George Bugg, Scriptural Geology (London: Hatchard &
Son,1826-27), Vol. 1, p. 318-19.
“To assume arbitrarily, a priori, that God created the
matter of this globe in the most imperfect state to
which the gross imagination of man can contrive to
reduce it, which it effectually does, by reducing the
creative Fiat to the mere production of an
amorphous elementary mass; and then to pretend,
that His intelligence and wisdom are to be collected
from certain hypothetical occult laws, by which that
mass worked itself into perfection of figure and
arrangement after innumerable ages; would tend to
lessen our sense either of the divine wisdom or
power, did not the supposition recoil with
tremendous reaction upon the supposers, and
convict them of the clumsiest irrationality.
Penn 1825—attack on God #1
Penn 1
“The
supposition,
is totally arbitrary;
and
Penn
1825—attack
on
God
#2
not only arbitrary, viciously arbitrary;
because, it is totally unnecessary, and
therefore betrays a vice of choice. For, the
laws of matter could not have worked
perfection in the mass which the Creator is
thus supposed to have formed imperfect,
unless by a power imparted by Himself who
established the laws. And, if He could thus
produce perfection mediately, through their
operation, He could produce it immediately,
without their operation.
Penn 2
“Why, then, wantonly and viciously, without a
Penn of1825—attack
God #3
pretence
authority, choose on
the supposition
of their mediation? It is entirely a decision of
choice and preference, that is, of the will; for,
the reason is no party in it, neither urging,
suggesting, encouraging, or in any way aiding
or abetting the decision, but, on the contrary,
positively denying and condemning it. The
vast length of time, which this sinistrous
choice is necessarily obliged to call in for its
own defence, could only be requisite to the
Creator for overcoming difficulties
obstructing the perfecting process;
Penn 3
“it therefore chooses to suppose, that He created
obstructions in matter, to resist and retard the
perfecting of the work which He designed; whilst at
the same time he might have perfected it without
any resistance at all, by His own Creative Act ... To
suppose then, a priori, and without the slightest
motive prompted by reason, that His wisdom willed,
at the same time, both the formation of a perfect
work, and a series of resistances to obstruct and
delay that perfect work, argues a gross defect of
intelligence somewhere; either in the Creator or in
the supposer; and I leave it to this science, to
determine the alternative.”
Penn 1825—attack on God #4
Granville Penn, Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and
Mosaic Geologies (London, J. Duncan, 1825), I:124-127.
SG BiblicalObjections
objections 3
Biblical
 Superficial analysis of the Bible
 Death before the Fall
 The nature of God
“Many reverend
Geologists,
Cole quote
1
however, would evince their
reverence for the divine
Revelation by making a distinction
between its historical and its
moral portions; and maintaining,
that the latter only is inspired and
absolute Truth; but that the former
is not so ...”
Cole (1834), pt. 1
“AccordingCole
to these
impious
quote
2 and
infidel modifiers and separators,
there is not one third of the Word of
God that is inspired; for not more,
nor perhaps so much, of that Word,
is occupied in abstract moral
revelation, instruction, and precept.
The other two thirds, therefore, are
open to any scientific modification
and interpretation; or, (if
scientifically required,) to a total
denial!”
Cole (1834), pt. 2
“It may however
safely
Cole be
quote
3 asserted,
that whoever professedly, before
men, disbelieves the inspiration of
any part of Revelation, disbelieves,
in the sight of God, its inspiration
altogether. If such principles were
permitted of the most High to
proceed to their ultimate drifts and
tendencies, how long would they be
sweeping all faith in revealed and
inspired Veracity from off the face of
the earth? ...”
Cole (1834), pt. 3
“What theCole
consequences
quote 4 of such
things must be to a revelationpossessing land, time will rapidly
and awfully unfold in its opening
pages of national skepticism,
infidelity, and apostasy, and of
God's righteous vengeance on
the same!”
Henry Cole, Popular Geology Subversive of
Divine Revelation (London: Hatchard & Son,
1834), p. ix-x, 44-45.
Block: mor-theo-hist
general books
The Great Turning Point
by Dr. Terry Mortenson
Tim. 6:20-21
NAS
1 ITimothy
6:20-21
O Timothy, guard what has been
entrusted to you, avoiding worldly
and empty chatter, and the
opposing arguments of what is
falsely called knowledge, which
some have professed and thus
gone astray from the faith.
Spurgeon
Sept
1855—old-earth
“Can any man tell me
thousands #1
when the beginning
was? Years ago we
thought the beginning
of this world was when
Adam came upon it;”
C.H. Spurgeon, “Election” (1855), The New Park Street
Pulpit (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publ. 1990), vol. 1, p. 318.
Spurgeon
Sept
1855—old-earth
“but we have discovered
thousands
that thousands
of years #2
before that God was
preparing chaotic matter
to make it a fit abode for
man, putting races of
creatures upon it, who
might die and leave behind the marks
of his handiwork and marvelous skill,
before he tried his hand on man.”
C.H. Spurgeon, “Election” (1855), The New Park Street
Pulpit (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publ. 1990), vol. 1, p. 318.
Spurgeon
Sept
1855—old-earth
“But that was not the
beginning, thousands
for revelation #3
points us to a period long
ere this world was
fashioned, to the days
when the morning stars
were begotten; when, like drops of
dew, from the fingers of the morning,”
C.H. Spurgeon, “Election” (1855), The New Park Street
Pulpit (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publ. 1990), vol. 1, p. 318.
Spurgeon
Sept
1855—old-earth
“stars and constellations
thousands
#4
fell trickling
from the
hand of God; when by his
own lips, he launched
forth ponderous orbs;
when with his own hand
he sent comets, like thunderbolts,
wandering through the sky, to find
one day their proper sphere.”
C.H. Spurgeon, “Election” (1855), The New Park Street
Pulpit (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publ. 1990), vol. 1, p. 318.
Spurgeon
June
1855—millions
“We know not how remote
the periodof
ofyears
the creation
(gap) #1
of this globe may be—
certainly many millions of
years before the time of
Adam. Our planet has
passed through various
stages of existence, and
different kinds of creatures
have lived on its surface, all
of which have been fashioned by God.”
C.H. Spurgeon, “The Power of the Holy Ghost” (1855),
The New Park Street Pulpit (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim
Publ. 1990), vol. 1, p. 230.
Spurgeon
June
1855—millions
“But before that era came,
wherein man
should (gap)
be its #2
of years
principal tenant and
monarch, the Creator gave
up the world to confusion.
He allowed the inward fires
to burst up from beneath,
and melt all the solid
matter, so that all kinds of
substances were commingled in one
vast mass of disorder.”
C.H. Spurgeon, “The Power of the Holy Ghost” (1855),
The New Park Street Pulpit (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim
Publ. 1990), vol. 1, p. 230.
Spurgeon
June
1855—millions
“The only name you could
give to theofworld,
then,
years
(gap) #3
was that it was a chaotic
mass of matter; what it
should be, you could not
guess or define. It was
entirely "without form and void; and
darkness was upon the face of the
deep." The Spirit came, and stretching
his broad wings, bade the darkness
disperse, and as he moved over it,”
C.H. Spurgeon, “The Power of the Holy Ghost” (1855),
The New Park Street Pulpit (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim
Publ. 1990), vol. 1, p. 230.
Spurgeon
June
1855—millions
“all the different portions
of matter of
came
into their
years
(gap) #4
places, and it was no
longer "without form, and
void;" but became round,
like its sister planets, and
moved, singing the high praises of
God—not discordantly, as it had done
before, but as one great note in the vast
scale of creation.”
C.H. Spurgeon, “The Power of the Holy Ghost” (1855),
The New Park Street Pulpit (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim
Publ. 1990), vol. 1, p. 230.
“Apart
from any2009--unbelief
ideological reasons
Dan Brown
#2
for Spurgeon’s failure to launch a
sustained onslaught on evolution,
there was one supremely practical
consideration that eliminated the
subject almost completely from
sermons, articles and books. To all
the major evangelistic and pastoral
concerns of his life it was, quite
simply, a total irrelevance.”
Colin Russell, Cross-currents: Interactions Between
Science and Faith (Leicester: IVPress, 1985), p. 174.
Millions of years & fossils
Millions
of
years
Evolution Millions of Years +
Creation 01133
Gen. 1:29-30
NAS
Genesis
1:29-30
29. Then God said, "Behold, I have
given you every plant yielding seed
that is on the surface of all the earth,
and every tree which has fruit yielding
seed; it shall be food for you;
30. and to every beast of the earth and
to every bird of the sky and to every
thing that moves on the earth which
has life, I have given every green plant
for food"; and it was so.
Gen. 3:18 & fossil thorns NAS
Two Histories of Death Both
A&E on bones
Q 202admitted
Hodgethat, taking
“It is of course
this account by itself, it would be
most natural to understand the
word [day] in its ordinary sense;
but if that sense brings the Mosaic
account into conflict with facts, and
another sense avoids such conflict,
then it is obligatory on us to adopt
that other.”
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997, reprint of 1871-73
original), Vol. 1, p. 571.
“The Church
has Hodge
been forced
Q 203
more than once to alter her
interpretation of the Bible to
accommodate the discoveries of
science. But this has been done
without doing any violence to the
Scriptures or in any degree
impairing their authority.”
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997 reprint of 1871-73), Vol.
1, p. 573.
“As early 1992—apostasy
as 1880 the editor ofby
one
Numbers
1880
American religious weekly [journal]
estimated that ‘perhaps a quarter,
perhaps a half of the educated
ministers in our leading Evangelical
denominations’ believed ‘that the
story of the creation and fall of man,
told in Genesis, is no more the
record of actual occurrences than is
the parable of the Prodigal Son’.”
Ronald Numbers, The Creationists (NY: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1992), p. 3.
“ThereA.H.
is no Strong
real
1907 #1
antagonism between
creation and evolution. …
If science should render
it certain that all the
present species of living
creatures were derived by
natural descent from a few original
germs, and that these germs were
themselves an evolution of inorganic
forces and materials,”
A.H. Strong, Systematic Theology [1907] (Valley
Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1967), pp. 391-392.
“we should
therefore
A.H. not
Strong
1907 #2
regard the Mosaic account
as proved untrue. We
should only be required to
revise our interpretation of
the word bara in Gen. 1:21,
27, and to give it there the
meaning of mediate creation, or
creation by law.”
A.H. Strong, Systematic Theology [1907] (Valley
Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1967), pp. 392-393.
Perfect – Intrusion – Restoration
-1
Perfect – Intrusion – Restoration
-2
Romans
8:19-22
Rom. 8:19-22
NAS
19. For the anxious longing of the
creation waits eagerly for the revealing
of the sons of God.
20. For the creation was subjected to
futility, not willingly, but because of
Him who subjected it, in hope
21. that the creation itself also will be
set free from its slavery to corruption
into the freedom of the glory of the
children of God.
22. For we know that the whole
creation groans and suffers the pains
of childbirth together until now.
Perfect – Intrusion – Restoration
–3
Numbers
2009—evolution
vs
“For creationists, history is based on
the Bible andgospel
the belief#1
that God
created the world 6,000-10,000 ago. …
We humans were perfect because we
were created in the image of God. And
then there was the fall. Death appears
and the whole account [in the Bible]
becomes one of deterioration and
degeneration.”
Ronald Numbers, quoted in Gwen Evans, “Reason
or faith? Darwin expert reflects,”
www.news.wisc.edu, 3 Feb. 2009.
Numbers
2009—evolution
vs
So we then have Jesus in the New
gospel
#2
Testament, who
promises
redemption. Evolution completely
flips that. With evolution, you don’t
start out with anything perfect, you
start with primitive little wiggly
things, which evolve into apes and,
finally, humans. There’s no perfect
state from which to fall.
Ronald Numbers, quoted in Gwen Evans, “Reason
or faith? Darwin expert reflects,”
www.news.wisc.edu, 3 Feb. 2009.
Scofield
Reference
Bible
(1909)
Gap Theory
C.I. Scofield
(1843-1921)
1917
“The firstScofield
creative act
refers to
the dateless past, and gives
scope for all the geologic ages.
… Relegate fossils to the
primitive creation, and no
conflict of science with the
Genesis cosmogony remains.”
C.I. Scofield, The Holy Bible (Lake Wylie, SC:
Christian Heritage, 1994 reprint of 1917 2nd ed.),
pp. 3-4.
R.A. Torrey, ed.,
The Fundamentals
(12 vol., 1910)
Old-earth
views
Reuben Archer Torrey
(1856-1928)
Scopes Evolution
Trial, 1925
 He couldn’t explain
where Cain got his wife.
 He compromised on
the days of creation and
the age of the earth.
William
Jennings
Bryan
Anti-evolution but old-earth
Princeton slippery
Seminaryslide
Presbyterian
Charles Hodge (1779- 1878)
Old-Earth
A.A. Hodge (1823-1886)
Theistic Evolution??
B.B. Warfield (1851-1921)
Theistic Evolution?
Farewell to God
1915-2001
Q that
815there
Templeton
I believe
is
no supreme being
with human attributes
-- no God in the
biblical sense -- but
that life is the result of timeless
evolutionary forces, having
reached its present transient
state over millions of years.
Charles Templeton, Farewell to God (Toronto:
McClelland & Stewart, 1996), p. 232.
Princeton slippery
Seminaryslide
Presbyterian
Charles Hodge (1779- 1878)
Old-Earth
A.A. Hodge (1823-1886)
Theistic Evolution??
B.B. Warfield (1851-1921)
Theistic Evolution?
Charles Templeton (at P.S. 1940s)
Apostate
Cross Series 1
Cross Series 2
Cross Series 6
Cross Series 7
Cross Series 8
Psalm
11:3
NAS
Psalm 11:3
If the foundations are
destroyed, what can the
righteous do?
Cross Series 9
Cross Series 11
Cross Series 10
Cross Series 12
“Today it is
perhaps
Purple
blank
the Darwinian view of
nature more than any
other that is
responsible for the
agnostic and skeptical
outlook of the
twentieth century.”
Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
(London: Burnett Books, 1985), p. 358.
“The blank
[Darwinian]
Purple
revolution began when
it became obvious that
the earth was very
ancient rather than
having been created
only 6000 years ago.
This finding was the snowball that
started the whole avalanche.”
Ernst Mayr, “The Nature of the Darwinian
Revolution,” Science, vol. 176 (2 June 1972), 988.
Corinthians 10:4-5
NAS
22 Corinthians
10:4-5
4. For the weapons of our warfare
are not of the flesh, but divinely
powerful for the destruction of
fortresses.
5. We are destroying speculations
and every lofty thing raised up
against the knowledge of God, and
we are taking every thought captive
to the obedience of Christ.
in-depth videos
Millions of Years
Where did the idea come from?
with Dr. Terry Mortenson
general books
The Great Turning Point
by Dr. Terry Mortenson
How and why
the church
compromised
with millions of
years in the early
19th century.
general books
Coming to Grips with Genesis
edited by Dr. Terry Mortenson
and Dr. Thane Ury
14 scholars give a
careful Biblical &
historical defense of
young-earth
creationism
© 2008 Answers in Genesis-USA
Cincinnati, OH
Creation Museum
Cincinnati, OH
Cincinnati map--Musuem
Kentucky
Petting Zoo
Wonders of Creation Room
Adam naming animals
Noah’s Ark Construction Site
Noah’s Ark Inside
Lots of Fossils
Dinosaur Den
Dragon Hall Bookstore
Last Adam Theater
1.2
Million
visitors
blank
Ark Encounter on 160 Acres
http://ArkEncounter.com