Leading Young-Earth Creationist to Lecture at Elmhurst College

Readers in the Chicagoland region may be interested in the following announcement from Dr. A. Andrew Das, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Elmhurst College:

Please consider our invitation to attend an event on Sunday, March 2^nd at 7:00 pm that is open to the public. Dr. Kurt Wise, arguably the world’s leading young-age creationist paleontologist, will deliver a lecture in the Hammerschmidt Chapel of Elmhurst College . Dr. Wise received his Ph.D. in paleontology from Harvard University. His doctoral supervisor was the late, renowned evolutionary theorist Dr. Stephen Jay Gould. Dr. Wise is currently a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. His book, Faith, Form, and Time (Broadman and Holman, 2002) will be available for purchase and signing after the event. Dr. Wise’s presentation will be followed by responses from a panel. Dr. Alan Gishlick (Ph.D., Yale) is a professor of paleontology at Gustavus Adolphus College and represents the National Center for Science Education. Professor Mladen Turk of Elmhurst College specializes in the interface between science and religion. Dr. Wise will offer a rejoinder to the panel presentations and then take written questions from the audience.

If you have questions about the event, contact Dr. Das at (630) 617-3541 or adas@elmhurst.edu.

Technorati Tags: Kurt Wise creationism young earth creationism Darwinism evolution origins cosmology science apologetics Bible

More on Heaven

If you found Time Magazine's interview with N. T. Wright about heaven (to which I linked last Saturday) intriguing, you should make a point of reading this essay by J. Richard Middleton titled "A New Heaven and a New Earth: The Case for a Holistic Reading of the Biblical Story of Redemption." (HT: Paul Norridge via Steve Bishop)

Middleton convincingly argues that the Bible's plotline militates against the popularly held notion of "heaven" (i.e., an otherworldly, ethereal state devoid of cultural activity) as the goal of redemption. To the contrary, the zenith of Christ's redeeming work will be a complete restoration and renewal of creation where creation is not restricted to what is commonly referred to as "nature" but includes "the entire human socio-cultural order." Middleton states that his intention is "to explore the exegetical case for a consistent understanding of redemption as the restoration of God's creational intent, such that the appropriate hope of the redeemed is life in a renewed intra-mundane, earthly creation."


Middleton divides the essay into the following sections:


The Logic of Creation and Redemption
The Plot of the Biblical Story of Redemption
The Comprehensive Scope of Redemption in the New Testament
Problem Texts for a Holistic Eschatology
What Role Then for Heaven?


Here are some of the lines I found worthy of underlining:

With these two distinctions (concerning creation and redemption) in mind, it becomes easier to see that the traditional picture of "heaven" (found in many classic hymns and contemporary praise songs) as perpetual fellowship with, and worship of, God cannot constitute full redemption in biblical terms. This is because the traditional picture typically omits (and thus implies the negation or abrogation of) large areas of human life that God created good. "Heaven," therefore, as an eschatological state does not constitute genuine redemption of the multifaceted world God intended from the beginning. The logic of biblical redemption, when combined with a biblical understanding of creation, requires the restoration and renewal of the full complexity of human life in our earthly environment, yet without sin.


It is sometimes shocking for readers of the Bible to realize that the initial purpose and raison d'etre of humanity is never explicitly portrayed in Scripture as the worship of God (or anything that would conform to our notion of the "spiritual," with its dualistic categories). Instead, Scripture portrays the human purpose in rather mundane terms of exercising power over our earthly environment as God's representatives...To put it another way, while various psalms (like 148 and 96) indeed call upon all creatures (humans included) to worship or serve God in the cosmic temple of creation (heaven and earth), the distinctive way humans worship or render service to the Creator is by the development of culture through interaction with our earthly environment (in a manner that glorifies God).

In addition to fueling the kind of anticipation and eager expectation that the Bible describes as characteristic of the Christian life (but which, if we're honest, is frequently lacking from ours), this fuller-orbed view of redemption infuses many of the daily activities we're prone to think of as obstacles to our "spiritual" lives with profound significance.

"A Creation-Affirming Doctrine"

Christianity Today "resurrects" a four-year-old interview with N. T. Wright about the Christian doctrine of resurrection and its implications. It's a necessary corrective to "evangeli-gnosticism" according to which escape from physicality, as opposed to the restoration of creation, is redemption's end:

I grew up with the view that in the early Old Testament period, there was no interest in life after death. In a middle period, represented by some of the Psalms, there were the beginnings of an interest in life after death. And then finally, with Daniel, you get resurrection, as though that's a progression away from the early period.

The view that I came to is that the main thing the whole Old Testament is concerned with is the God of Israel, as the Creator God who has made a good creation, and that what matters about human life really is that it's meant to be lived within God's good, lovely, created world. That is equally emphatic in the early period, where you get agricultural festivals that celebrate Yahweh as king over the crops and the land. It's equally emphatic there and in the doctrine of resurrection. From that point of view, the idea of a disembodied, nonspacio-temporal life after death appears as a rather odd blip in between these two strong affirmations of the goodness of the created order and the wonderful God-givenness of human bodily life within that created order.

So, instead of resurrection being a step away from the early period, it is a way of reaffirming what the early period was trying to get at: the goodness of creation.

Driving the Marketplace Out of American Christianity

A handful of people were directed to a recent post on Christian retailing after doing searches for "gospel golf balls" or something similar. The LA Times article linked to in that post quotes Alan Wolfe, a non-Christian sociologist who has done a lot of research about American evangelism. When asked what he thinks the proliferation of Christianized products reveals, Wolfe replied, " "It's as if they're saying the task of bringing people to Jesus is too hard, so let's retreat into a fortress."


The above searches in combination with the fact that just last week someone offered me a fish-shaped "Scripture Mint" prompted me to link to this interview of Wolfe by Russell Moore on a recent broadcast of the Albert Mohler Program (HT: Justin Taylor) in which Wolfe had more indicting commentary about Christian retailing. It's painful listening because so much of what he offers as reasons for the mass production of so-called evangelistic merchandise is true.

I think there's another reason behind the impulse to stamp a Scripture verse on every imaginable object. In large part we have an anemic doctrine of creation. Our conviction that God is the maker of heaven and earth should be evidenced in more ways than ongoing debates with evolutionists. Certainly, there's a need for such apologetic activity but the doctrine of creation, like all biblical doctrines, is not given primarily for the purpose of our defending it but for our living it.

How do we live the doctrine of creation? By affirming along with God that his creation, though cursed on account of humanity's rebellion, is still good and is given to us to richly enjoy with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:4; 6:17). As Michael Wittmer says in his book, Heaven is a Place on Earth:

Because we know that this creation is the good gift of God, we are not only permitted but encouraged to enjoy it as is. Unlike those who think that worldly objects are somehow enhanced by stamping Scripture verses on them, Christians who understand the goodness of this world celebrate the freedom to enjoy God's creation as is. We no longer need to sanitize secular items with our sanctified slogans to make them suitable for Christian consumption....In fact, our feeble attempts at baptizing creation tend to cheapen both it and the gospel (p. 66-67).

If believers really grasped this, many Christian businesses would go belly up and perhaps Christian "bookstores" would become bookstores again.

By the way, if you'd like a concentrated dose of the kind of creation- and gospel-trivializing merchandise Wittmer refers to, the Ship of Fools' collection of Gadgets for God is hard to beat. Among their current list of top-ten products is a lanyard and cap designed to convert your iPod Shuffle into a cross. Click the picture for their description and ordering information.

The Gospel Is Bigger Than We Think

Trinity professor of biblical and systematic theology, Graham Cole uttered one line in a brief conversation that I will never forget. He said, "We are creatures before we are Christians." Today, former Trinity prof Scot McKnight makes the same point with a few more words, all of which are worth reading carefully. Scot notes that the problem for which the gospel is the solution is only properly understood if Creation, rather than the Fall, is our starting point:

It is common to begin, rather abruptly, with the Fall and to see humans as sinners in need of forgiveness. I do not dispute either that we are sinners or that we all need forgiveness. Sometimes, so it seems to me, our sin is understood as little more than a legal standing or a judicial sentence against us, and that means that forgiveness follows in line: it, too, is understood as little more than a standing or judicially.

But, both of these problems — how we understand sin and how we understand forgiveness — are created by beginning at the wrong place.  Instead of beginning the gospel story with the Fall, I am suggesting we begin with the Creation of humans, both male and female, as Eikons of God. That is, as made in the image of God (imago Dei). The gospel begins, and only begins, because humans are Eikons of God.

Instead of seeing humans first and foremost as sinners, we need to see them as Eikons of God, created to relate to God, to relate to others, and to govern the world as Eikons. The Fall affects each of the previous: our relation to God, our relation to others, and our relation to the world. Humans, then, are cracked Eikons. There is all the difference in the world in depicting humans as simply sinners and seeing sinfulness as the condition and behavior of a cracked Eikon. Humans sin, but their sin is the sin of an Eikon. They can’t be defined by their sin until they are seen as Eikons.

The gospel, when it begins with Creation, is God’s work to restore and undo and recreate (whichever image you might prefer) what we were designed by God to be and to do. To begin here means the gospel is about restoring Eikons rather than just forgiving sinners. This gospel is bigger and it is bigger because the human condition is bigger than a Fallen condition.

I came across this gem during a study break and I couldn't resist pointing others to it. I don't anticipate posting much more for the next few days as I have a pressing deadline breathing down my neck. I hope the rest of you can enjoy life on the outside!

This Little Light of Mine

After tossing and turning due to the unbearable heat a few mornings ago, I finally went downstairs to turn on the air conditioner. Wanting to give time for the cool air to circulate upstairs I plopped down on the couch and turned on the television. Flipping through the myriad of early morning infomercials, I came upon The New Jim Bakker Show, broadcasting from the entertainment capital of the midwest, Branson, MO.
 
The scene was disturbingly familiar - Jim seated next to his new wife, looking into the camera and asking viewers to send a "donation." You know, those "suggested donations" in exchange for which the donor receives a "gift" from the ministry. The gift Jim was promoting was a battery-free flashlight that gives an hour of light after being powered by 60 seconds of cranking with a detachable crank. But this isn't just any flashlight. It's a "Revelation Generation LifeLight" with the reminder that "Jesus is the light of the world" printed in gold on its side. (It occurred to me today that this isn't really a gospel searchlight since one only receives illumination by works but that's another story.)

It wasn't long before my twisted sense of humor went to work thinking of other common objects that could be Christianized with the addition of a Bible verse. Here are two potential items:

• Plant food with "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten" printed on the package
• Permanent markers reading "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

Feel free to leave your ideas for Pious Products in a comment.

Of course, one doesn't have to suffer from bouts of insomnia to find similar objects. Christian bookstores (do they still call them bookstores?) are filled with them. Consumerism is in large part the force behind the marketing of prooftexted merchandise but I think Mike Wittmer is right when he traces this phenomenon to a deficient doctrine of creation and its goodness. In Heaven Is a Place on Earth he writes:

....we don't need to stamp Christianity on something before we can enjoy it. In fact, our feeble attempts at baptizing creation tend to cheapen both it and the gospel. Printing "cross-training" or "cross-eyed" on a T-shirt trivializes both the cross (do we really want to compare Jesus' suffering to a type of exercise or astigmatism?) and ordinary T-shirts (which are perhaps not as good as those with religious slogans). The same holds true for spill-proof cups emblazoned with John 4:14 -- "whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst"; key chains that parody milk advertisements with the probing question "Got Jesus?"; dinner plates that claim to be "Home Grown and Heaven Bound"; and stuffed ducks wearing rain gear on account of recurring "Showers of Blessing" (honestly, I could not make this stuff up). Rather than improve creation, such silliness only distracts from the goodness that is already there while mocking the gospel it seeks to advertise (p. 67).

Well, it's early yet and I've not fully woken up so I'm going to get some coffee. Now, where'd I put my Miracle Mug?

Earth Day & Imago Dei

I had no idea that today is Earth Day until I read Greg Koukl's insights about the inconsistency of Darwinian theory and the belief that humans are morally obliged to care for the environment:

The moral obligations underpinning Earth Week activities simply do not follow from the naturalistic world view that embraces Darwinism. It follows, rather, from a theistic world view in which God has created man as unique and given him responsibility over the Earth to care for it. Earth Week makes sense for Christians, not for Darwinists.

I've been reading in Anthony Hoekema's Created in God's Image. In it, he notes that while in one sense post-Fall humanity retains God's image (Gen. 9:6; James 3:9), that image has been severely perverted and stands in need of being renewed in Christ (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10) who perfectly images God. This progressive renewal manifests itself in three relationships: with God, with each other, and with nature. Concerning the last he writes:

The renewal of the image means, in the third place, that man is now enabled properly to rule over and care for God's creation. That is to say, he is now empowered to exercise dominion over the earth and over nature in a responsible, obedient, and unselfish way. This means that man is now enabled to look upon himself as a steward of the earth and all that is in it, rather than an overlord with absolute and completely arbitrary power. This includes holding property, tilling the soil, growing fruit trees, mining coal, and drilling for oil not for personal aggrandizement but in a responsible way, for the benefit and welfare of one's fellowmen. In our present world this also includes concern for the conservation of natural resources, and opposition to all wasteful or thoughtless exploitation of those resources. It includes concern for the preservation of the environment and for the prevention of whatever hurts that environment: erosion, wanton destruction of animal species, pollution of air and water. It includes concern for adequate distribution of food, the prevention of famine, and the improvement of sanitation. It also embraces the advancement of scientific investigation, research, and experimentation, including the continuing conquest of space, in such a way as to honor God's commands and to give him praise.

A dear Christian woman who enjoys gardening and is very good at it recently told me that other believers have insinuated that the time she spends working the soil could be better used evangelizing. The implication is that such (trivial) pursuits are obstacles to authentic spirituality. I think this reveals how desperately evangelicalism needs to consider the doctrine of creation as something more than the apologetic answer to evolution. Since the Bible presents redemption as a restoration of creation (not just individual souls) then it's imperative that we understand the beginning of the biblical story. In his excellent book, Heaven is a Place On Earth Michael Wittmer reminds us that:

...it is good for us every now and then to revisit our theological footer and check for cracks in our doctrine of creation. Even small problems there, if left unattended, will cause exponentially larger difficulties upstairs, in our understanding of the fall and redemption. In short, to the extent that we misunderstand the story of creation we will also be confused about the gospel.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if as part of our discipleship we encouraged followers of Christ to garden to the glory of God?