Book Review: Creation According to the Scriptures

“A Presuppositional Defense of Literal, Six-Day Creation”

This is a book of articles written by prominent Christians and edited by P. Andrew Sandlin.

I have to admit that I had very high hopes for this book.

Last year, I had the good fortune of attending a debate between young Earth creationist Dr. Danny Faulkner, and Dr. Hugh Ross; a well known “old-ager.”

After demolishing Danny Faulkner in debate, Dr. Ross made himself available for questions, and was bombarded by a crowd of angry creationists, including Gary Bates, author of the excellent book “Alien Intrusion.”  http://www.alienintrusion.com/main.html

To Dr. Ross’ credit, he patiently listened to the same old arguments from this mass of well meaning but upset Christians, and responded in kind.

They were all approaching him about the nature of the facts. They disagreed with his cosmological model, on the basis of factual errors. I had recently begun studying presuppositonal apologetics, and so, my mind was focusing in on a different area.

Could it be, that the model Dr. Ross was proposing, while having possible factual substance, rather, erred on a theological basis? My mind was racing for some angle to attack his model, (a model which I had previously only been scantily aware of.)

I did confront Hugh Ross that evening, but only with objections that I had thought up on the fly. Needless to say, they weren’t very well thought out, and he was ready for them.

I left the exchange with a firm resolve to find, (if any existed) an in-depth presuppositional critique of any world view or model that did not posit a literal 6 day, recent creation.

I had hoped that with this book; my search was over. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Please don’t misunderstand me though. This was an excellent book, and I am glad that I purchased it! It has some very valuable insights, and for the Christian who has never been confronted with (what I consider heresy) “non-literal” readings of Genesis, it serves as a great introduction to the issues. It will teach you how to approach the issue, so that you avoid the pitfalls like those of the well-meaning Christians at the debate I attended.

This book is really meant to defend literal 6-day Creationism (here after called just Creationism) against all comers. Therefore, some of the articles, (like the excellent one by Van Til) focus on pointing out the underlying philosophical issues between the Creationist and the challenger.

I really loved chapter 10, “Creation and Science” by John King, which explicitly highlights the different philosophies by comparing and contrasting the creation account of Genesis with that of Enuma Elish (the Babylonian creation story.) In doing so, King demonstrates that all non-Christian accounts of creation are really anthropomorphic in essence; embracing a chaotic metaphysic centering on the individual. Thus, he is able to draw a distinction between mythology (including supposed “modern science”), and Christian Creationism.

Rushdoony, in my opinion, comes the closet to helping me out in my search for a strong presuppositional critique of Hugh Ross, (and subsequent heretical creation accounts.) Although, Van Til’s essay (chapter 5) goes into the nature of the philosophical distinctions involved, Rushdoony articulates the problem (in chapter 1.)

He focuses strictly on the attempts to undermine a literal 6-day creation account, by stating four ways in which these attempts will have a “deadly” effect.

1. These attempts create a different view of the Bible. (This is explained further in other chapters.)

2. (This is the biggie in my opinion.) “A denial of six-day creation requires a different view of God. Rushdoony says the following:

“Processes theology rapidly takes over and the Biblical God wanes as a humanistic and “evolutionary” God replaces Him.” (page 1.)

3. The people attempting to subvert six-day creation, essentially become “symbolic theology champions.” Self appointed elite interpreters of scripture in the world of the church.

4. The common people (through a literal and simplistic reading) find themselves at odds with these self appointed symbolic champions, and therefore a rift is occurring between the seminary, and the church.

What I was really hoping for, was an entire book, expounding on number 1, and especially number 2 in Rushdoony’s list.

I knew from the day I fist heard Dr. Hugh Ross speak, that he was proclaiming a different God than the one I worshiped. I desperately want a book, article, person, ANYTHING, that will highlight the presuppositions involved in a God like Ross’, and contrast them with the Christian God.

Van Til, Rushdoony, and a few others, define the issue in this book. It is not answered or expounded upon however, and because of that, I have to give the book a 3 out of a possible 5 star rating.

(There was a very surprising chapter, which deserves its own blog, so I’ll reserve comments about it until then. The chapter in question is chapter 12, by C. Paul Ferroni called: “The Reconstructionist View of Science.” Stay tuned!)