Historical Christadelphian Approaches - 1

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Index of Early Genesis, A review of historical Christadelphian approaches

by Bro Ken Chalmers, January, 2016
Next: Introduction

1. Before We Begin

There is a lesson which we must all learn when it comes to the topic of Creation and God’s handiwork. It is the lesson which Job was taught from the mouth of His Creator and which elicited a response replete with humility:

“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted; you asked ‘who is this who darkens counsel without knowledge?’ But I have declared without understanding things too wonderful for me to know.. . .  Therefore I despise myself, and I repent in dust and ashes!”[1]

Unfortunately, in discussion on early Genesis and particularly Creation, this verse is sometimes used by the proponent of a view, as a strong admonition to an opponent holding another view. But the lesson is sometimes not applied as conscientiously ‘at home’!

In reviewing the material available from the past, several writers have, more than once, described the appropriateness of an enquiring mind and deep humility in approach:

“The Bible is a record of God’s creative activity in the beginning and onwards. It begins with creation. ‘In the beginning God created . . .’. We cannot believe in the Bible and deny belief in creation. But when we ask how God created and seek to impose an interpretation upon the language of Genesis, we may make mistakes. Yet reverent enquiry can be pursued with profit if we recognize the limitations of our efforts. Different suggestions have been put forward at various times in the past, but we shall know finally the truth when Moses is again on the scene.”[2]

“It is no use asking the plain brother or sister (including myself) to become a scientific expert in order to decide the questions involved. We cannot do it, and most of us would not if we could. If our faith depended on settling expertly the scientific issues, most of us would have to bid our faith goodbye. Now some plain men settle the issue for themselves by casting around for a scientist who agrees with our position, and pinning their faith on him. Most plain men outside the conservative churches (and the temptation is felt within) rest content with what ‘science’ as a whole is supposed to say, and adjust their attitude to the Scriptures—if they have one—to match. And neither attitude is strictly speaking intelligent: it is quite right to point out divisions in the scientists’ camp, but it is not self evident that the majority must be wrong. It is proper to take note of what scientists as a whole may think, but in any science-versus-Bible type of discussion, the Bible side must not be condemned unheard.”[3]

And again . . . 

“There is perhaps a fundamental truth here. Ought we not to recognise that it does not lie in the creature to discover how the Creator made him? That such things are too high for him? That the imperfect knowledge which even the twentieth century must confess to or the processes of conception, gestation and birth is a thousand times less difficult to understand than how God made the creature with these powers in the first place? That simple words tell us basically all that we can hope to know, that God fashioned these also after the inscrutable counsel of His will?[4]

Similarly, bro H A Whittaker expresses himself as follows:

“It is surely obvious that if in this Creation account God’s omniscience had described to the last detail just how this amazingly complex world, animate and inanimate, came into being, then no-one — neither ancient Israelite nor clever sophisticated scientist — would have made much sense of it. So God has said in His Word: ‘This is how I want you to think of Creation. This is the concept of origins that is best for you. Be content to think of things as happening like this.’[5]

In reflecting on these advices, perhaps there is wisdom in how we reflect on, and engage, with the early Genesis narrative. Surely, the advice is consistent with the following:

“Just as you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones form in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.”[6]

  1. Job 42:1-3,6
  2. Carter, J, The Christadelphian, v97, p6 (1960)
  3. Norris, A D, Where Religion and Science Meet, The Christadelphian, v101, p427 (1964)
  4. Norris, A D, Where Religion and Science Meet, The Christadelphian, v101, p534 (1964)
  5. Whittaker, H A, Genesis 1-2-3-4, p 16, 17, Biblia (1986)
  6. Ecclesiastes 11:5, NET
Next: Introduction