Book Review: Creation and Change
Creation and Change: Genesis 1.1-2.4 in the Light of Changing Scientific Paradigms, by Douglas F. Kelly (Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications—Mentor imprint, 1997), 252 pp. plus select bibliography, Scripture/persons/subject indexes.
Reviewed by Harry Zekveld.
Extracted from Ordained Servant vol. 7, no. 2 (Apr. 1998), pp. 41-43
“There is only one way for massive intellectual, moral, and cultural healing to occur, and it entails a revolutionary ‘paradigm shift’ from mythological evolution to a Scripturally revealed and scientifically realistic paradigm of special, divine creation” (p. 245). That’s Kelly’s concluding challenge. Kelly steps out to do what few conservative Reformed theologians have dared to do. He calls the church back to a straightforward, literal reading of the first two chapters of Genesis!
Douglas Kelly is presently serving on the faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary at Charlotte, NC, as Professor of Systematic Theology. This book grew out of an adult Sunday School Class he taught at the First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, MS. While its mixture of careful biblical exegesis and intricate scientific analysis may make it a little tough going at times (I wonder if it is as accessible to the general public as he hopes), this will provide college students with a good textbook on the role of faith in science. Each the chapters concludes with “Questions for Study.” These questions, together with the teacher’s Study Guide that is being—or has already been—produced, could make this book useful for Bible Study classes.
Finally!—a Reformed theologian who is willing (and able) to make a sustained defense of Creation ex nihilo in the space of six ordinary days! Until recently only the Creation Scientists have been willing to do so. Also, lately, Philip Johnson and Michael Behe have taken the evolutionary scientists to task. But we need Bible scholars who will also take evolutionary exegetes to task. Kelly does this. According to him, a “progressive creationist” is more correctly named an “evangelical evolutionist.”
This book is no cheap shot at evolutionism. The author has thoroughly researched his subject both in the area of theology and science, even though he claims to be no expert in the latter. He frequently acquaints us with the thinking of church fathers, leads us into several Latin and French works, and serves us with an impressive bibliography. In addition to the Select Bibliography, each chapter has appended a section of “Technical and Bibliographical Notes.”
Ever since the advocates of old earth and evolutionary dogma have come on board, theologians—even the greatest and most conservative—have retreated into a corner when it comes to the interpretation of Gen. 1-11. The author’s concern is “the pervasive influence of the interpretive principle held by so many evangelical scholars that one must take a fundamentally different hermeneutical approach to the first eleven chapters of Genesis from the rest of Scripture (in order to accommodate significant aspects of the naturalist world view)” (p. 52). Liberal scholars don’t have this problem—they admit that the text of Genesis must be taken in the literal, historical sense. They just don’t believe what it says. Evangelical scholars, however, clearly recognize that they have a problem if they want to concede to science on the one hand and hold to inerrancy on the other. So “a large percentage of conservative evangelical scholars refuse to interpret the Genesis text in its plain historical or literal sense!” (p. 51).
Douglas Kelly calls for hermeneutical consistency and intellectual honesty among evangelicals. We must listen to Scripture speak as it addresses real space/time issues. If we do not listen, then we will find ourselves slipping into a deadly deism in which we no longer hear what the Bible says in the real world. He quotes Scottish theologian James Denney: “The separation between the religious and the scientific means in the end the separation of the religious and the true; and this means that religion dies among true men” (p. 17). Genesis 1 and 2 open up to us fundamental space/time issues which may not be explained away. “[I]n order to grasp the true situation, one must let [God] relate how He did it, as regards space, matter and time” (p. 78).
In twelve chapters, the author takes us through the creation week. The opening chapter, “Creation: Why it Matters and How It Is Scientifically Viable” discusses the inescapably religious starting point of the scientist. “Either one begins with faith in an eternal God or with faith in eternal matter. There is nothing in between (p. 26). Lately, evolutionary scientists are frustrated by the limits of a closed universe and are submitting to the reality of design. Kelly argues that only the Bible provides a logical and intelligent starting point for investigating the creation.
In Chapter 2, “Interpretation and Outline of the First Three Chapters of Genesis,” the author argues that we must read this part of Scripture as chronological history, not as poetry or allegory. The following two chapters, “An Absolute Beginning” and “Day One of Creation” are a defense of creatio ex nihilo from Gen. 1:1-3. He confirms this teaching using the two laws of thermodynamics to argue that matter simply cannot explain origins. In addition, “the irreducibly complex structure of functioning biological systems such as cells cry out for an absolute beginning by an ‘intelligent Designer’” (p. 63).
Chapter 5, “Creation of Angels and ‘The Gap Theory,’” shows how the Gap theory seriously conflicts with the teaching that the creation was all very good (Gen. 1:31). Chapter 6, “‘Days’ of Creation: Their Biblical Meaning,” is a significant chapter not only because of his careful exegesis of the Hebrew word “yom” but also because the author does a fine job of critiquing the “Framework Hypothesis.” This hypothesis places an “axiomatic disjunction between literary form and literal meaning, that does not come from the Bible itself” (p. 115). An outside philosophical position is at work in this dichotomy which threatens to empty the actual words of historical truth and fill them with the interpreter’s own meaning. Kelly also shows how the New Testament writers assumed a plain, chronological understanding of the early chapters of Genesis.
Chapters 7 and 8 require a more scientific mind. In these chapters the author uses arguments from the decreasing speed of light and physical chronometers to support a young earth position. He begins by admitting that these two chapters are “much more tenuous than the rest of the book” (p. 137) because thus far the scientific evidence is inconclusive. Nevertheless, the Scriptural evidence “clearly favors” a young earth. Looking at the genealogies, it appears that they contain far fewer gaps (if any) than we have been led to believe. “It is better to be honest and face the facts of the case: a straightforward reading of Holy Scripture teaches an earth only a few thousand years old. This is irreconcilable with the vast ages posited by the evolutionary hypothesis” (p. 142).
The three chapters that follow give a somewhat brief explanation of Days 2-6 of creation. There is good material in these chapters for sermon preparation on the days of Genesis 1. The author includes refutations of abiogenesis (development of life from inanimate materials) and mutations between kinds.
Finally, the book closes with a chapter entitled, “The Sabbath Day and the Orientation of the Whole Created Order Towards the Worship of God.” The author argues that the Sabbath is embedded in the very structure of created life for the purpose of remembering our Creator. It orients us toward the future, directing our gaze and activities toward a higher world “where we shall by and by enjoy endless fellowship with our Creator and Redeemer!” (p. 243).
In my view, the author’s exegesis is persuasive. However, at times the reader would have been better served if the author had given a more lucid explanation of key grammatical points from the Hebrew, such as: why Gen. 1:1 is an absolute clause, why Gen. 2:4 is a superscription, and how Gen. 2:5 anticipates a post-fall environment.
One item that was lacking was a definitive statement on the relation of biblical exegesis to empirical investigation. The author moves back and forth from exegesis to scientific data between chapters and within chapters without clearly stating their connection. He should have led us in thinking through this connection more self-consciously.
This is an important book. In the past I learned that one should snicker at the mention of the Creation Scientists, and break into a laugh when Bishop Ussher was named. Kelly puts a stop to that. He shows that their conclusions about the formation and age of the earth deserves a long, hard look. Above all, he demonstrates courage that is much-lacking in our churches and seminaries—the courage to be honest with the text of Scripture in regards to origins. Too long we have been grasping at two contradictory worldviews, hoping for a handful of both. We’ve wanted to hang on to the event-character of certain dear truths of creation and the fall, but we refused to root these truths in proper exegesis for fear that we would have to say too much about creation. We went after historical-redemptive necessity rather than exegetical necessity. It’s time that we let the text speak for itself again.
Douglas Kelly is conversant with a broad range of authors in biblical scholarship, science, and philosophy. It makes his book a rich read.
Harry Zekveld is currently pastor of the Cornerstone United Reformed Church in Sanborn, Iowa. He was nurtured in the Christian Reformed Church in Canada, and completed studies for the ministry at Mid-America Reformed Seminary in 1995.