Covenanter Witness Vol. 86 - Rparchives.org

The Importance Of Creation StudyJohn W. Klotz, B.D., Ph.D.Prof, of Biology, Concordia Senior CollegeFort Wayne, Indiana(continued from last week)VI. THE NEW TESTAMENT ACCEPTS THEGENESIS ACCOUNT LITERALLY ANDBUILDS ON ITOur Savior quotes Genesis and quotes it in such away that He obviously accepts it literally. You will recallour Savior's clash with the Pharisees regarding divorce asit is recorded in Matthew 19 and Mark 10. The Phariseesthought that they could trap Him by asking Him aboutdivorce. Their divorce practices were very loose: theytook advantage of Moses' regulations regarding a bill ofdivorcement which at the Savior's time was available onthe slightest pretext. They knew that the Savior did notapprove of their divorce practices. By asking Him aboutdivorce they thought they would trap Him into approvingsomething of which He did not approve or criticizing aregulation of Moses. Instead the Savior in support of Hisposition quoted Genesis 1:27 and 2:24. He takes these asliteral, not as allegorical. He accepts this account inGenesis 1 and 2 as historical and not as myth or saga.Even more significant is St. Paul's use of the creationaccount. He accepts the historicity of Adam and Eve,something which few theistic or atheistic evolutionistsaccept. To the evolutionist, Adam and Eve cannot beindividuals: they must represent an evolutionarypopulation. It is unthinkable that only one male and onefemale developed to the status of Homo Sapiens. Rather agroup, perhaps a hundred or five hundred, achieved thisbiological status, and it must be these that are referred toas Adam and Eve.We must recognize that Adam is sometimes used inthe Old Testament as a generalized term for man. This isin keeping with the Hebrew practice of economizing onvowels, of making one word do the work of several. Yet itis very clear that Moses is talking about one man and onewoman. St. Paul understands Moses in this way. Inchapter 5 of his epistle to the Romans, he repeatedlycompares the one Adam with the one Christ. He says, forinstance in v. 12, "By one man sin entered into the worldand death by sin." He tells us, v. 15, that bv the offence ofone man, many died and that by the grace of God whichis by one man many are made alive. He goes on to say, v.18, "By the offence of one judgment came upon all men tocondemnation; even so by the righteousness of one thefree gift came upon all men unto justification of life" andthen he continues in v. 19, "For as by one man'sdisobedience many were made sinners, so by theobedience of one shall many be made righteous." St. Pauluses a similar parallel in 1 Corinthians 15. There he says, v.22, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all bemade alive."These parallels of St. Paul make no senseunless one accepts the historicity of Adam.If Adam is not an individual but rather represents anevolutionary population, what of Christ? Is He an individualor does He perhaps represent a sufferingpopulation? St. Paul's reference to Adam and Eve in ITimothy is also interesting. In chapter 2, he tells us thatwomen are not to teach nor to usurp authority over theman and he gives as his reason, "For Adam was firstformed, then Eve." This reference makes sense onlyifAdam and Eve are individuals. To suggest that theyrepresent evolutionary populations, involves biologicalnonsense. It suggests that first there was a race of malesonly and that after some time a race of females developed.Even more interesting is St. Paul's reference to ourfirst parents in I Corinthians 11. Here again he is dealingwith the relationship of men and women and he gives ashis reason in v. 8 "For the man is not of the woman; butthe woman of the man." The Greek preposition used heremeans "out of," and is a clear reference to the creation ofwoman as it is recorded in Genesis 2:21.There are some theistic evolutionists who recognizethis New Testament problem and suggest that only onemale and one female were picked out of the evolutionarypopulation to be the parents of the human race. Thus agroup of beings had evolved to the biological status ofHomo sapiens.God interfered directly and picked out onemale, Adam, and one female, Eve. To these He gave a souland they became the ancestors of the human race. If this isthe case, we might well ask, "What became of the otheranthropoids whom God did not choose to become^ ourparents? Are there people who are biologically Homosapiens but who do not have a soul and are therefore nottruly human? Is it possible that some of our radical racistsare correct in insisting that not all the races of man aretruly human?"VII. THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTION RUNSCOUNTER TO CHRISTIANITYModern evolution is Darwinian: the generally acceptedtheory today is said to be neo-Darwinian. By thismodern evolutionists mean Darwinism modified bymodern genetics. Accordingly there is still the struggle forexistence, the survival of the fittest, nature red in toothand claw. True, these concepts are no longer used in thesame sense in which early evolutionists used them. The6 COVENANTER WITNESS